Sussex Corner woman tells her story to raise funds for mental health services
Donna Craig, of Sussex Corner, says her son still struggles with depression and regret over stabbing and strangling his own father in a Manitoba hotel room on April 10, 2013.
"You can imagine how you would feel," says Craig, "if you happened to kill your best friend."
Dana Craig remains in a halfway house in Winnipeg. He takes medication and sees a psychiatrist. His mother says he was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder at the age of 17, but he had been doing well for about 11 years.
He was working in Alberta, when his parents detected something drastically wrong in his text messages, Facebook postings, and a phone call.
A crisis response team for mental illness was dispatched to see him.
"The people arrived and assessed him, and after ten minutes, decided he was okay," said Craig. "He could pull himself together for ten minutes, but not for much longer."
Craig's husband, Terry, decided to catch a flight out west to see his son for himself. The two men planned to drive back to New Brunswick.
On the second night, the senior Craig called 911 from a Motel 6 in Brandon, but he gave the wrong room number.
"The police showed up, knocked on a few doors and assumed it was a crank call and left," Craig said. "Everything that could have gone right, went wrong."
Dana Craig was charged with second degree murder.
The court ruled he was having an acute psychotic episode at the time of the attack and found him not criminally responsible.
In March of 2014, CBC News reported that Craig was trying to have her son transferred to a psychiatric hospital in New Brunswick so she could be closer to him.
That didn't happen.
"We stay in touch, sometimes through Skype and sometimes we send text messages back and forth," Craig said. "I know he's taken care of."
On May 6th, Craig will tell her story at a fundraiser for the Canadian Mental Health Association.
The Day In Her Shoes fundraiser is unique to the Saint John chapter and is now in its eighth year.
Previous speakers include Valerie Pringle and Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau.
Money raised by the event, will help support outreach programs in the Saint John area.
That includes courses on how to manage depression and cope with suicide.
"There is a shortage of services," said CMHA Program Co-ordinator Dawn O'Dell. "So what we do is strive to provide services and help individuals in accessing that necessary support, whether it is through private or the public system. So it's educating people on how to access that and to take the positive and proactive steps to achieve mental wellness."
"Stats show that one in five individuals will experience mental health issues at some point in their lives," O'Dell said.
