Investment executive Nancy Sampson spent $400,000 to send her two teenaged children - grappling with depression and addictions - to the United States for treatment because there was nothing available in Ontario.

Claire McConnell, a health systems planner, spent $70,000 on private treatment in Ontario and New Brunswick for her daughter - a straight-A student and gifted soccer and hockey player - who became addicted to drugs.

They are two of several parents attending a news conference today at Queen's Park to tell chilling stories of how mental illnesses and addictions can strike teens in any family - and there is a shocking lack of services available in Ontario when they do.

"Everybody looked at us and asked: 'Your family?' " Ms. McConnell said. "If it can happen to us, it can happen to anybody. Bad things can happen to the best of people."

The bad things Ms. McConnell referred to are the addictions that teenagers can develop in desperate attempts to self-medicate a mental health problem such as depression.

Kate Sellar, a lawyer who helps parents submit forms in an attempt to have treatment in the United States covered, said that when Ontario's out-of-country program works, it works well, "but there are people who fall through the cracks."

In some cases, families can't afford the cost of U.S. treatment that the Ontario Health Insurance Plan may not cover.

And "some fall through the cracks because their physicians or their families don't know about the [out-of-country] program at all," Ms. Sellar wrote yesterday in an e-mail.

Ontario New Democrat MPP Michael Prue, who has taken up the cause on behalf of parents, said the province needs more of these specialized, residential services for youths.

In the meantime, these patients should be sent to facilities in other provinces or the United States and have it funded by the province.

"Most of the other provinces have treatment facilities for their at-risk youth, and I think we should have them, too," Mr. Prue said in a telephone interview yesterday. He said the Liberal government has been aware of the service problem for five years.

Health Ministry spokesman John Yoannou said 37 new patients under age 18 were funded for out-of-country substance abuse treatment from April of 2004 to the end of March of 2007.

The Ontario government funds 46 substance-abuse treatment programs specifically designed for young people, including eight that specialize in youth residential services for people 17 and younger, Mr. Yoannou said.

Parents, including Ms. McConnell, say the waiting times for the residential programs can be extraordinarily long: In some cases, the queue is two to three months.

That is why she sent her daughter away for treatment. And, she says, it has paid off: Today, her daughter, 19, is looking forward to attending university in 2009 and studying film.

Some, faced with a lengthy queue for care, send their children to residential treatment centres in other provinces, such as New Brunswick, or in several American states, including Utah and Nevada.

Ms. Sampson said her son and daughter became addicted to drugs. Her son, who had depression, used drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, commonly referred to as crystal meth. Her daughter used alcohol and methamphetamine.

"There's such a stigma attached to having a child who is using drugs, but we have to talk about it," she said. "I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to basically save their lives - there isn't a choice."

Today, both children are doing well; her son, 19, is finishing high school and her daughter, 17, is recovering and is planning to enroll in a U.S. university.