Mental Health Advocate Wants Investigation Into SJRH

A mental health advocate wants a provincial investigation into the suicide death of a patient in the psychiatric unit of the Saint John Regional Hospital.

Patty Borthwick has been seeking answers since the death of her daughter, Hillary Hooper, back in December.

Her battle to get information caught the attention of Bill Wilkerson, the co-founder of Mental Health International.

Wilkerson said the hospital and Horizon Health, which operates the facility, have been “callous and unprofessional” in their responses to Borthwick.

“This group said to Patty they couldn’t give her any information on her daughter’s death due to privacy considerations. Just days earlier, they took her word as the authority to turn off the life support of this young woman, which ended her life,” Wilkerson said in a phone interview.

“This absurdity triggered my serious concern about the competence and integrity of this hospital relative to psychiatric care.”

Wilkerson said Borthwick is simply trying to find out what happened to her daughter and how she was able to end her life in the hospital’s psychiatric unit.

Recommendations from Horizon

According to Wilkerson, Borthwick received a letter from Jean Daigle, Horizon’s vice-president community, in late May indicating that two recommendations had been approved.

• Investigate procuring ligature-resistant door frames, designs, or door design for inpatient psychiatry units.
• Investigate the establishment of a Crisis Stabilization Unit for increased structure and observation for patients in crisis requiring short-term intervention.

Wilkerson said the recommendations are “revealing and indicative” of why the province should step in and investigate the management of the hospital’s psychiatric unit.

“Years after the province emerged as a leading jurisdiction in suicide incidence, we have a major urban hospital and health management company ‘investigating’ whether the basics of door design and observational capacity are suitable for their psychiatric wing,” he said.

In a letter dated July 2, Wilkerson urged Premier Blaine Higgs to consider putting the hospital “under provincial supervision to ensure these investigations are carried out by independent experts in psychiatric service and protective suicide risk management.”

“That hospital should not be treating this as an internal thing wrapped in some perverted, distorted notion of privacy because they have a responsibility to let the public know what in fact has happened,” Wilkerson said.

“If you’re responsible for the problem, you’re not going to be believable as an objective analyst of what needs to be done.”

In a statement, Daigle said Horizon has reviewed the incident with relevant clinical team members, in association with its patient safety services.

“We have shared the recommendations with the mother of this patient and are exploring the feasibility of the recommendations and associated timelines,” Daigle wrote.

“This is not any further review which will be undertaken in relation to this incident.”

If you are in need of help, you can contact the Saint John Integrated Mobile Crisis Response Team at 1-888-811-3664 or the Chimo Helpline at 1-800-667-5005.