![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776952930_353_default.jpg\")
Jeremiah remembers feeling scared when he was sent from the hospital to a local homeless shelter after he attempted suicide. (David Laughlin\/CBC)<\/p>\nWARNING: This story references self-harm and suicide.<\/p>\n
Paramedics rolled Jeremiah Dixon into the emergency department on a gurney after he’d made multiple attempts to take his own life. Less than a day later, he was discharged and sent by taxi to a local homeless shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was scared and shocked,\u201d the 19-year-old said in an interview at his family home in Dartmouth, N.S. \u201cI was still like dizzy and stuff, and they just sent me off with some snacks and a ride to the shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a little confused as to why \u2026 the doctors would send someone in my state out of the hospital where they should be getting help.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremiah, who has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and borderline personality disorder, says he\u2019s experienced suicidal thoughts since he was about eight years old.<\/p>\n
For as long as he can remember, he\u2019s struggled to regulate his impulses and behaviour \u2014 a common symptom of both conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the night of April 13, he was engaging in self-harm and attempted to end his life at home. He then left the house and was later found by police trying to break into a building where he planned to attempt suicide again. <\/p>\n
Jeremiah remembers feeling scared when he was sent from the hospital to a local homeless shelter after he attempted suicide. (David Laughlin\/CBC)<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just kind of in a really negative headspace and there were a lot of dark thoughts that were running through my mind,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paramedics were called and he was taken by ambulance to the Halifax Infirmary where he was assessed and treated for his injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremiah\u2019s parents, who adopted him and his sister in 2009, said they got the call around 9 a.m. the next morning that their son was at the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kim and Dave Dixon said they spent a few hours in the waiting room before they were allowed to see him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They were able to speak with the emergency room doctor and a psychiatric nurse to provide information about Jeremiah\u2019s medical history.<\/p>\n
Given his mental and physical condition, the Dixons assumed he’d be admitted to the hospital for at least a couple days, so they went home to check on their other kids.<\/p>\n
Around 4 p.m., they said, hospital staff called to say Jeremiah seemed fine and would be discharged.<\/p>\n
Kim and Dave pushed back, arguing their son required serious mental health intervention. They told staff they needed at least a day to come up with a safety plan before they could bring him back into their home.<\/p>\n
After a few back-and-forths, the Dixons said hospital staff called around 6:30 p.m. to inform them their son was in a cab on his way to the Salvation Army shelter.<\/p>\n
Jeremiah didn’t have any form of identification or his cellphone with him.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776952930_477_default.jpg\")
Dave Dixon is Jeremiah’s father. He says this situation has left him angry about the state of the Nova Scotia health-care system. (David Laughlin\/CBC)<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t understand what kind of person or what kind of system would allow a disabled, vulnerable person who is in the middle of a mental health crisis to be sent to a homeless shelter,\u201d said Dave Dixon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seemed very much a situation of \u2018we just want to clear the bed,\u2019 and that seemed to be the highest and only priority.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dave drove to the shelter and found Jeremiah filling out intake forms with an employee. He said the employee was trying to find Jeremiah a bed in a youth shelter, because she didn\u2019t think the Salvation Army was the right place for him in the midst of a mental health crisis.<\/p>\n
Dave and Kim said they wrestled with what to do. They didn\u2019t know if their home was a safe place for their son, but they ultimately decided it was safer than the shelter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou feel isolated and hopeless,\u201d Kim said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so hard to battle the system, that we have to also accept the fact that he may not make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
No discharge plan<\/p>\n
Nova Scotia Health declined an interview with CBC News to talk about this incident, or about hospital intake and discharge protocol more broadly.<\/p>\n
In an email statement, a health authority spokesperson said mental health or addictions crises do not always require hospitalization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision to keep someone in hospital is made by gaining an understanding of the whole person \u2014 not by a single moment or incident,\u201d Keith Corcoran said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance, what else is going on in their life that might impact coping skills? What community supports are already in place? If we can identify a plan that includes ongoing care and resources in the community, that person may not need to remain in hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Corcoran added there is “significant evidence to demonstrate the potential harm of hospital admission for people with particular mental health disorders.”<\/p>\n
When asked if sending Jeremiah by taxi to a shelter was in line with Nova Scotia Health protocol, Corcoran said \u201cwe cannot comment on the details of specific client\/provider interactions. In general, a decision to discharge depends on what is agreed upon between the client and provider.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Dixons said there was no clear plan in place for Jeremiah.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776952931_207_default.jpg\")
Kim Dixon, Jeremiah’s mother, says she’s almost had to come to terms with the fact that she might lose her son to suicide one day. (David Laughlin\/CBC)<\/p>\n
They would later learn a followup appointment had been scheduled with a hospital social worker.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jeremiah missed the appointment because his memory from that night is hazy, and Kim said no one from the hospital told her about it because Jeremiah is legally an adult and therefore they could not disclose that information.<\/p>\n
A few days later, Jeremiah visited his family doctor to get his medications regulated. The Dixons said the physician had no record of their son\u2019s suicide attempts or details from his hospital visit, apart from the fact that he had blood drawn at the Infirmary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe literally just \u2026 was left to go to die, it feels,\u201d said Kim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I hope that I can be successful in my life\u2019<\/p>\n
After the Dixons made a formal complaint and CBC News reached out to Nova Scotia Health and the Department of Health and Wellness about the situation, the family received a phone call Monday from someone with the QEII Health Sciences Centre\u2019s psychiatric team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kim said the person seemed sympathetic about what had happened and booked an appointment for Jeremiah to see a psychiatrist next week.<\/p>\n
The Dixons said he has been on a psychiatry waitlist for a year and a half.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, there\u2019s a lot of anger and sadness over the brokenness of a system, and a lack of care from people who should care,\u201d said Dave.<\/p>\n
The Health Department did not respond to CBC’s questions by deadline.<\/p>\n
As for Jeremiah, he hopes that with the right therapies, medication and support, he can start to feel better and move forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that I can be successful in my life,\u201d he said. \u201cI know that\u2019s what my parents want, and I want that too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you or someone you know is struggling:\u00a0<\/p>\n
MORE TOP STORIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING: This story references self-harm and suicide. Paramedics rolled Jeremiah Dixon into the emergency department on a gurney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":623399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-623398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=623398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/623398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/623399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=623398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=623398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=623398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}