Man's search for PTSD treatment turns into battle for survival

The Pressures of PTSD 

Stephen Budd's journey with post-traumatic stress disorder is documented in a three-part series prepared by CBC reporter Olivia Stefanovich for Morning North. 

Part one: Diagnosis

Morning North10:10The Pressures of PTSD - Part 1

Nightmares. Hallucinations. Flashbacks. The CBC's Olivia Stefanovich brings us Part 1 of a documentary series about a Sudbury man diagnosed with PTSD. It's the story of Stephen Budd and his challenges trying to find mental health treatment.

Part two: Finding treatment

Morning North7:47The pressures of PTSD - part 2

We continue our three part series featuring Stephen Budd, a Sudbury man diagnosed with PTSD. The CBC's Olivia Stefanovich prepared this documentary which looks at navigating Sudbury mental health while under constant emotional and psychological stress.

Part three: Recovery

A man says he was on the cusp of malnutrition as he waited for disability payments to be approved, and for treatment to help his post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Stephen Budd, 52, moved to Sudbury from Parry Sound, Ont., in August 2014 to find appropriate mental health services for his condition.

"I used to own my house and I owned a lot of stuff," said Budd. "I'm now down to what fits in a bachelor apartment and a 12-foot trailer. Everything else has been sold to live on over the winter."

Budd was diagnosed with PTSD in June 2014 from childhood abuse.

Budd cannot work because of his condition. He was told by his doctor that he should qualify for Ontario disability payments, but he was rejected on his first try.

"That's what you get for getting sick in this province,"said Budd. "You lose everything,"

Fishing for food

Budd was receiving $652 per month from welfare, but he said it was not enough to pay for his basic needs.

"I have in my freezer two servings of snapping turtle and pike," said Budd. "That's literally how I get meat."​

Budd and his brother Mike appealed his disability application. They sent a five-pound file of his mental health records from the past 15 years to the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

Disability approved after four appeals

Budd said he was approved for disability payments this fall. ​

"Why does anyone who's actually disabled have to wait through four appeal processes?" asked Budd. 

The Ministry of Community and Social Services told CBC News that it cannot talk about Budd's disability application because it does not comment on specific cases.

Budd finds that frustrating because he thinks all of this could have been avoided if the system worked as it should.

"The problem is, we haven't been able to get treatment for this in four years," said Budd. "I'm drawing on the tax base from the social safety net not doing what they were supposed to do when I went in to them when this was a minor incident, until it became [an] accident, catastrophic, shit-disturbing problem."