This article contains content which may be distressing to some readers. Reader discretion is advised. For mental health help and information, call 310-6789 (no area code) To see all the services and help available, visit .
The mother of a Williams Lake man is voicing her ongoing frustration at what she considers a lack of appropriate mental health supports.
"This was so unaddressed, and now my son is suffering for that," said Melanie Funk, whose son, Jacob Funk, is currently being held in Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre.
Funk believes the laws meant to protect her son are actually preventing him from getting the help he needs, and had him out on the street when what he needed was medical care.
Instead of the mental health care she believes her son needs, the justice system is left to deal with the resulting behaviour. Jacob is currently in custody on a number of charges, including uttering threats, assault and break and enter.
A cry for help
His mother said she appeared before a judge in the first week of June as a last-ditch effort to get her son assessed by a psychiatrist after he began having trouble with the law.
She was requesting what is called a Form 9, asking for Jacob to be taken into custody for a psychiatric assessment. A Form 9 requests that a warrant be issued by a judge under the Mental Health Act for a person who may be suffering from a serious mental health disorder. A number of reasons can be used in order for a warrant to be issued in such cases, including preventing mental or physical deterioration, the need for psychiatric treatment, or refusal to attend voluntarily for examination by a doctor.
Katie Matuschewski, interim clinical operations director at Interior Health for Cariboo Thompson rural, said if a Form 9 is approved, it can lead to treatment planning, which can include a range of things and can lead to further certification in some cases.
"It's very client-dependent on what that treatment plan would look like," said Matuschewski, noting health care workers, family members and caregivers can all submit a Form 9 to a judge. She said Interior Health's role is to support the family or person applying.
"They are difficult situations for families to be involved in when our loved ones are quite sick," she said.
However, Funk's application for the Form 9 was denied.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Funk said she asked through tears, after a judge refused her request.
Her request for her son to be apprehended, which aligns with a number of politicians calling for broader use of involuntary care, also comes as the B.C. Mental Health Act (MHA) is facing a court challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms filed in May 2025.
Critics of the MHA are pushing back on some of its applications, asking for its revision to allow patients to appoint alternate decision-makers, provide more options for patients to challenge imposed treatments, and impose stronger obligations on providers to document their decisions. A Charter of Rights court challenge of B.C.'s MHA was filed in May 2025, with the B.C. Supreme Court considering whether the deemed consent provision within the MHA violates a person's rights under the Charter.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) B.C. division, every year in this province, the MHA is used about 30,000 times to involuntarily detain individuals with mental health or substance use issues. CMHA stated this is the highest rate in the country.
But as the judicial system works to balance personal rights and freedoms, where does the responsibility lie for dealing with the mentally ill and addicted persons caught up in the criminal justice system, asked Funk.
Mental health, addictions, is it criminal, medical, or both?
Funk wants to see her son get the help she believes he needs to get him back on his feet.
"He wants to be clean, he wants to achieve," she said.
Funk said that until Jacob's father died as a result of mental health and substance use issues when Jacob was 13-years-old, her son "was happy, he was active, he loved music, played music." Funk recalls him enjoying snowmobiling and having lots of friends.
But after his father's death, she said her son faced mental health challenges and then later, substance use issues. She said Jacob mostly used marijuana and alcohol, but it wasn't until he lost his home that she believes he became more involved in harder drugs.
In December 2024, after Jacob lost his home, he was admitted to the hospital under the Mental Health Act and then sent to a psychiatric facility in Kamloops. She said he was released less than 24 hours after arriving and sent to her home in Williams Lake in a cab from Kamloops. But it wasn't long before that living situation became unsustainable.
At the age of 26, Jacob was living in and out of shelters and on the streets.
"He was using because he was in such a dire place in his life," she said.
In April 2025, Jacob first faced charges of assault with a weapon, uttering threats and simple assault after alleged events in 150 Mile House.
In May, Jacob was then charged with break and enter to commit an offence, disguising his face with intent to commit an offence and breach of a release order. The next month, Jacob posted on his Facebook page about going to Kelowna for an outpatient treatment program.
This was also the month when Funk said she applied to a judge with the Form 9 to get him off the streets and get him much-needed mental health care, but was turned down. Jacob was released from custody.
By the weekend, Jacob was charged with assaulting a peace officer, wilfully resisting or obstructing a peace officer and breach of a release order. He was released again.
Not even a week later, Jacob was charged with assault, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm and two counts of breach of an undertaking.
Before the RCMP announced charges related to the alleged break and enter, Jacob appeared to have been in the Tribune newspaper once before in 2011.
In the photo and brief description, Jacob is about 12-years-old, carrying out random acts of kindness in the community as part of programs he was taking part in at what was then the Boys and Girls Club.
Systemic challenges to getting help
Now, with Jacob in custody, his mother said she wants to see people get the help they need before they become a hazard to themselves or the community by getting caught up in the justice system.
She believes that at least some of the charges against Jacob could have been prevented if her application for a psychiatric assessment had been approved.
"It's really sad to see the fact that my son might go to jail," she said.
Jacob's case has garnered a large amount of public attention after Williams Lake's Mayor Surinderpal Rathor, on behalf of city council, wrote a letter to the Crown prosecutor requesting that Jacob be kept in custody.
Cariboo-Prince George MP Todd Doherty, also used Jacob as an example, repeating his name multiple times, when he stood up in the House of Commons during Question Period, calling for "prolific offenders" to be kept locked up.
A Government of Canada review of the RCMP's Crime Reduction-Type units from 2020 defines a prolific offender as "a repeat offender who is involved in a disproportional number of crimes and exhibits a persistent criminal behaviour." Human rights groups, including Pivot Legal Society, have criticized the use of the term, calling it "dehumanizing."
Coun. Scott Nelson then highlighted Jacob's case on his Facebook page by sharing Doherty's video.
Funk commented on Nelson's post, expressing her frustration with the focus put on Jacob specifically. After that Nelson interviewed Funk and shared the video on his Facebook page, as well as a copy of the letter Rathor wrote to Crown Counsel.
"I'm really scared he's going to get nailed to the wall as an example," Funk said.
The mother is worried the focus on Jacob's case by politicians calling to keep so-called prolific offenders in custody could lead to harsher sentencing for Jacob if he is found guilty.
Funk said her son does not have a long criminal history and is not a "prolific offender." Instead, he has ended up where he is due to a lack of proper psychiatric help. If he had the support he had needed within the last year, he may never have even ended up in the justice system to begin with.
Matuschewski said there are multiple pathways to getting people the help they need, with Gateway at Cariboo Memorial Hospital as an option for some people in mental health crises or substance use crises. She said typical stays to stabilize clients at Gateway are from five to 10 days. She said while there can be a few days' wait to get a bed, much like a grocery store lineup, sometimes there is no wait at all, and sometimes it can be days.
"I can confirm that the Gateway services are definitely needed in this community and are being accessed," said Matuschewski. She said there are a number of ways for people to get access to Gateway, from emergency department referrals to a person's general practitioner, or the urgent and primary care centre.
The focus on Funk's son by area politicians comes during increased concerns around crime, homelessness and drug use in Williams Lake's downtown core. Coun. Nelson had put forward a motion in May for the city to declare a local state of emergency and implement a curfew in a bid to address concerns of public safety from the community and local businesses. After receiving additional RCMP supports from the province, the majority of council voted against taking the step to declare a local state of emergency, and only Nelson voted in favour of it. Nelson has also been a vocal supporter of the use of involuntary care for those struggling with mental health and substance use issues.
The Mental Health Act has been used for many years in cases where people are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others during a mental health or substance use crisis.
Matuschewski said people's experiences under the Mental Health Act are going to vary, and she has seen many positive outcomes for those put into care, while other patients would disagree.
"It's very individual, every patient is so unique," she said.
While Funk's son remains in custody, awaiting his time in court, she said her hope for him is to receive a year of treatment and to have his mental health needs met. She's hopeful he could get into supportive housing once he receives proper treatment.
So far, Funk said Jacob has been getting some help for his addiction and mental health needs while in custody, but nowhere near what he needs.
While Funk said her son is angry at her for his being in custody after incidents where she called the RCMP, he loves her and also misses his younger sister Jocelyn.
"She's special needs, autistic and loves her brother and misses him terribly," Funk told the Tribune.
"None of this would have happened had his mental health issues been addressed," she said.
The charges against Jacob Funk have not yet been proven in court, and his next appearance is an arraignment hearing scheduled for July 30, when the charges will be read with an opportunity for Jacob to enter a plea.
Where to get help
Matuschewski said for an urgent crisis, to call the Community Crisis Response Team at 250-855-8465 or the Crisis Line Network at 1-888-353-2273. For more progressive cases, people can walk into the 487 Borland Avenue office Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
A crisis response nurse is also available to call seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. by calling 310-MHSU (6478). Otherwise, families can bring their loved ones to the emergency department or call the RCMP.
Matuschewski also emphasized the need for caregivers to access support.
"Having loved ones who are sick is really really hard, so for the caregivers out there to also not forget to seek out services for themselves," she said.
She said people can go to their general practitioners, the Canadian Mental Health Association in Williams Lake and for younger family members, the Foundry Cariboo Chilcotin.
