Woman outraged after son able to walk away from HSC crisis response centre, wander for hours in cold 'What has to happen for them to do something?': mother By: Chris Kitching Posted: 6:22 PM CDT Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024

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A Winnipeg mother is raising concerns about security at Health Sciences Centre’s mental-health crisis response centre, after she says no one stopped her son from walking out of the 24-7 facility.

The woman, who asked not to be named to protect her 20-year-old son’s privacy, said her older son found him walking in the Polo Park area — a few kilometres from HSC — about eight hours later.

“Why does a family have to be left to their own devices?” said the mother. “I’m just furious. When I needed help, I didn’t have it.”

The woman said the crisis response centre needs more locked rooms or alternatives when the inner-city facility’s only locked room is occupied.

“What has to happen for them to do something?” she said.

Past incidents led to concerns about security and supervision protocols at the site, which itself is not locked.

In 2021, Trevor Farley, then 37, killed his parents, Judy Swain, 73, and Stuart Farley, 73, and stabbed nursing supervisor Candyce Szkwarek at Seven Oaks General Hospital within hours of walking out of the CRC, where he was an involuntary patient.

Farley was found not criminally responsible due to mental illness in 2023.

In the latest incident, the mother said her younger son agreed to go to the CRC last Friday. She was concerned about his safety after an incident at home.

She said her son had visited the Bannatyne Avenue facility in the past.

This time, he was assessed and put in an unlocked room, while he waited for a bed on a separate unit on HSC’s campus, the mother said.

At about 11 p.m. Saturday, an employee called to tell her that her son walked away and police were notified, she said.

“I said, ‘What do you mean he just left? Don’t you have security that could have apprehended him?’” she said.

She feared her son would come to harm.

“I was prepared to look for his body, honestly,” the woman said.

Her older son found him on Portage Avenue Sunday morning at about 8 a.m. , she said.

“It’s the system that we have to change, and I don’t know how.”–patient’s mother

“He was freezing and his hands were ice-cold. He had no idea where he was going,” the woman said, noting he wasn’t dressed for cold weather.

She said her son was later admitted to a psychiatric unit.

The woman said she contacted HSC’s patient relations office to raise her concerns about the CRC.

She said she doesn’t think anything will come of the situation, because it’s one person against a system.

“It’s the system that we have to change, and I don’t know how,” she said.

A Shared Health spokesperson said CRC “leadership” has reached out to the family. The spokesperson said an institutional safety officer is stationed at the facility 24-7.

They said contracted security personnel are assigned to help clinical staff when clients may require additional observation while they wait for involuntary admission to a psychiatric facility or transfer to a unit.

If someone leaves the CRC while under involuntary status on a Form 4 (an application by a physician for involuntary psychiatric assessment), staff are required to notify the police.

In May, health-care sources said staff have pleaded for more resources and security at the CRC. They said the facility was overwhelmed by chronic understaffing and high numbers of patients in severe crisis, contributing to safety concerns.

A source said a lot of patients “go AWOL,” while facing long waits, and the facility needs more than one locked room for involuntary patients.

The person said staff are instructed to alert police and not physically stop involuntary patients who walk away.

Those concerns were raised after a young man’s death was declared a critical incident. Sources said the patient self-harmed at the CRC, and died after he self-harmed on a hospital ward the next day.

An internal critical incident investigation is ongoing. While final recommendations have not yet been received, some interim measures have been implemented, the Shared Health spokesperson said.

“This includes several physical changes within the CRC that further restrict access to staff-only areas, including card swipe access and self-closing gates,” the spokesperson wrote, noting additional changes are being considered.

Bag checks are carried out and amnesty lockers are available to prevent weapons from entering the facility, the spokesperson said.

The facility recorded 7,831 visits for walk-in services in the 2023-2024 fiscal year, up from 7,390 the previous year and 6,525 in 2021-2022, according to a Shared Health annual report.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara, a psychiatric nurse before becoming an MLA, said safety is the top priority when people access mental-health services.

“Whenever we hear about the challenges that are happening or folks leaving when they’re in a place where they’re supposed to receive care or trying to receive care, we always listen and learn from those situations to make sure that folks can be comfortable and confident in accessing care in a safe way,” Asagwara said.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook said there is likely a need to “staff up” the CRC.

Shared Health is launching a new website Friday for critical incidents and patient-safety learning advisories, which contain recommendations, a government spokesperson confirmed.

— With files from Carol Sanders

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca