NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN
www.pentictonwesternnews.com
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Woman freezes to death at Apex Mountain Resort
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VOL.46 ISSUE 17
Teachers gather at Pen High to protest legislated contract
page
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 2012
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entertainment Bring your cellphones, entert
Paul Brandt is in the city
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enticto t n at athl athletes hlet hl etes es sshine hine on hin sports Penticton
Winter Games stage in Vernon
THE EYES HAVE IT — Six-month-old Kade Conibear blinks the water away while enjoying the pleasant waters of the Penticton Community Centre pool recently with mom Rachel Wagenaar. The pool is open seven days a week for public swimming and recreation department aquatic programs.
Mark Brett/Western News
FAMILY CRITICAL OF DAY PASS PROCESS Kristi Patton Western News Staff
“What if I was planning my sister’s funeral today instead?” It was the Àrst question asked by the brother of a woman who drove a car into the Okanagan River Channel last week. The woman’s family, mainly from outside the area, said they only found out about the incident through the media. The man, whose name is being withheld to respect the privacy of his sister, said she entered the Penticton psychiatric ward two weeks ago after attempting to take her life for about the third time in Àve years. Last Wednesday, she was given a day pass and tried once again to take her life. “I respect any hospital, but I think that the process here sucks,” said the brother, who called the hospital after seeing video of the channel incident online. “They wouldn’t conÀrm or deny it was her in the car, but said she is here and she is safe.”
The brother said he is thankful for the RCMP, who provided some information for him when the hospital would not. He also thanked those who risked themselves to save his sister. Still, the family member believes the process of issuing a day pass should be re-thought by Interior Health. “They are saying she doesn’t have the mental or emotional capacity to function, but they will give her permission to make a decision to leave for a day? It is an irony,” said the brother. “For me, knowing that my sister was safe at the hospital was everything to me. Then they issue a day pass? I think there are some questions that need to be made in the mental health system.” Penticton Regional Hospital administrator Lorraine Unruh did not comment on this speciÀc case due to patient conÀdentiality, but explained that typically when a voluntarily admitted patient goes out on a day pass, they don’t notify the family because they are voluntarily going out on pass. Unruh said it depends on who the patient
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has given permission for the hospital to release information to. “We have to be very careful about that because sometimes it can be people like media Àshing and digging for information. What we normally do is ask a patient who would they like to be their contact and we would provide information to their contact, but not just anybody that called Àshing,” said Unruh. This is not the Àrst criticism of the Penticton Regional Hospital psychiatric unit, albeit it was directed to forensic psychiatry. In November, the lawyer of a Penticton man sentenced to two years less a day for a purse snatching spree in the summer stood before the court explaining the difÀculties the man had with mental health at the hospital. James Pennington pointed out his client, James Keller, was aware he was on a “downward spiral” and recognized he needed help. Pennington told the court mental health services failed Keller and the psychiatrist prescribed him a new
medication that was nine times the dosage anyone should be on. When Keller Ànally got a new doctor the family trusted, he had to be weaned off the drug before being put on something else. It was during that time he became addicted to crack cocaine, which his lawyer said drove him to steal to keep up his habit. A separate court case this past year had the lawyer asking the courts what does a young man, who has minimal Ànancial and family support and continues to Ànd himself in trouble, do when the services aren’t here. This was after the second time in two years the man had been in the Penticton courts and sent to jail. Unruh said forensic psychiatry, which encompasses both criminology and psychiatry, is not something that is specialized in Penticton. She said Kelowna is the only place in the area that specializes in any kind of adolescent/child psychiatry, which causes a backlog of sorts because of the lack of services elsewhere.
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