Psych test backlog trouble for trial

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This article was published 15/07/2021 (1574 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg murder trial may be delayed as burnout, bed shortages and understaffing prompt a backlog in psychiatric testing for those involved in the legal system.

Milles Ramirez, 33, has been in custody since Dec. 27, 2019, for allegedly stabbing his father to death in their Inkster Gardens home.

At the time, city police said Ramirez walked into the downtown headquarters and told officers he had killed a family member. Shortly after, a 911 call was made from the Highwater Path home where 54-year-old Reynaldo Ramirez was found dead from stab wounds.

Milles Ramirez was later charged with second-degree murder.

Though his trial is set to take place this fall, there could be further delays as Ramirez waits to be admitted to Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre for a psychiatric assessment of criminal responsibility — a step now five months overdue.

In a Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench hearing Wednesday before Justice Gerald Chartier, the court learned the assessment, first ordered Feb. 9, would only start this week due to a slow-moving wait list caused by a shortage of beds and staff.

The Criminal Code mandates criminal responsibility assessments — used to determine whether the accused was aware they were doing something wrong when an incident occurred — are to be completed within 30 days of the court order.

On Wednesday, Adrian Hynes, medical director for HSC’s forensic psychiatry program, said there are always several people waiting to access one of the 15 available beds, causing backlogs that have persisted for more than two years.

“It has taken five months to get through five people on the criminal responsibility wait list,” Hynes told court. “We are short of beds.”

Chris Gamby, communications director for the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba, said long delays for court-ordered psychiatric assessments are the norm.

“The fact that there are timeframes that are imposed or guidelines that are imposed and they’re not being met tells me there is a resourcing issue,” he suggested in a phone interview. “You are on the axis of the justice system and the health system, and neither of these two systems are funded very well at the moment.”

Those awaiting criminal responsibility assessments are often pre-empted by people in more urgent need, Hynes told court.

Beds may, at any time, be filled by people receiving fitness for trial assessments, fulfilling treatment orders, incarcerated people who are severely ill and require hospitalization, or people who are not in custody but have no place to be safely discharged in the community.

Hynes noted he cannot recall a person receiving a criminal responsibility assessment within the allotted 30-day period since he became director three years ago.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated procedural delays and resource shortages, he said. “There is much more psychiatric illness in COVID than otherwise, and not just in patients but in staff related to burnout, early retirements and so on.”

The forensic psychiatric program lost three staff members over the past year, Hynes said, leaving just three doctors to address growing patient needs, with only one potential new recruit on the way.

Gamby said while lawyers now expect reports to take longer than the 30-day limit, their clients — particularly those waiting in custody — are often confused or frustrated by the delays.

Peter Kingsley, executive director of Legal Aid Manitoba, said the delays have long been a concern for courts, doctors, accused and families, adding there is “no worse place” for someone experiencing mental health issues than the confines of custody.

Delayed assessments, he suggested, can also make it challenging for doctors to assess a person’s mental state at the time an alleged incident occurred.

“You need that person assessed as fast as possible, because that’s going to be the best indicator of what that person was like on the date of the incident,” said Kingsley.

He noted the mental health court has been working to streamline the process by holding regular meetings between courts, corrections staff and medical staff to discuss strategies to address obstacles and move cases through the system faster.

 

julia-simone.rutgers@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jsrutgers