Family of missing Winnipeg man offers up reward for info

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/11/2015 (3936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The family of a Winnipeg man, who has been missing for a month, is now offering a $2,000 reward as they search for answers in his disappearance.

The reward is for information that leads to Reid Bricker’s body being found, as his family presumes he is dead.

Bricker, 33, was last seen around 3 a.m. Oct. 24 leaving the Health Sciences Centre after staff released him. He’d been hospitalized after his third suicide attempt in 10 days. His family later found his suicide note and has been advocating for changes to health-care policies that would ensure proper discharge plans are in place for mentally-ill patients who are leaving the hospital.

Bricker’s family is “without hope at this point,” said his mother, Bonnie Bricker. She is urging downtown businesses to check their video surveillance footage for any trace of her son.

“We’re hoping that, given that it’s the Christmas season coming up, a little cash reward might be incentive for somebody to search their memory if they saw him and then come forward and let us know,” she said. “We don’t really have any other options at this point because there have been absolutely no clues.”

Bonnie said when Reid was hospitalized she didn’t know there was a provision under Manitoba’s Personal Health Information Act that allows health-care professionals to contact family members or vice versa to discuss the care of a patient with mental-health issues.

“They did follow proper discharge protocol with him, but there were options available to them that they did not utilize,” she said.

She would like to see changes to hospitals’ discharge procedures for individuals struggling with mental-health issues.

“That doesn’t mean handing somebody a brochure at three o’clock in the morning and saying here are the programs that are available to you in the community,” she said. “That’s not a discharge plan. And certainly not for somebody who’s tried to take their lives three times in 10 days.”

Anyone with information on Reid Bricker’s whereabouts can contact the Winnipeg Police Service or Crime Stoppers at 204-786-8477. He is described as 5-8 tall with a slim build, short dark hair and an unshaven face.