Honouring Taylor Pryor

Earlier today, I spoke on a Member's Statement about Taylor Pryor

I rise to speak of Taylor Pryor - an amazing young woman who did very well in school and was an athlete who loved playing soccer. She lived life to the fullest and lived a life where no one was left behind. One day, playing soccer, she collided with another player and had a concussion.

The concussion, in some way, changed her brain. She became suicidal. Her thoughts, no matter what she did, were of suicide. She reached out. She called out for help - again and again and again and again.

Her parents went above and beyond what normal mortals could do in trying to help.

We must build a better world – with more empathy, more understanding and more knowledge of how to help.

We must build capacity so that when a young woman like Taylor calls for help, our society and our health care system can save her. After struggling for almost a year, and after an unbelievable number of Emergency room and Crisis Response Centre visits, she was only a few days away from getting the treatment she needed – at the Selkirk Residential Inpatient Centre. If only that option had been available a few days earlier.

It was a system failure – the like of which we hope will never happen again. I remember a friend who died in 2008. I remember Reid Bricker in 2016. Both reached out for help which never came. There are many others who could have been helped in a better, improved system. We must dedicate ourselves - all of us - to achieving what could be, what can be, in order to ensure the Taylor Pryors of the future can get the help they need, when they need it.

Taylor could have been our daughter, our son or our grandchild. She is a member of our family – our Manitoba family – and for the future we need a system which is there for all families. Today members of Taylor Pryor's family are with us in the gallery as we honour the memory of Taylor Pryor.

You can see the video of my Member's statement at this link

https://youtu.be/R1MUrSd6TK0

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