An article published in the November 24th edition of The Chronicle Herald:
By Jennifer Stweart, Court Reporter, with Dan Arsenault, Crime Reporter, and The Canadian Press
The province has committed to establishing a mental health court in Nova Scotia that would deal with mentally ill offenders.
"It’s in development," Justice Department spokeswoman Cathy MacIsaac said Friday. "I can’t really give you any further details."
The announcement came Thursday as part of the Conservatives’ throne speech. But it received little attention because of the buzz surrounding the death earlier in the day of Howard Hyde.
Officers arrested the Dartmouth man early Wednesday. He died Thursday, 30 hours after Halifax Regional Police used a stun gun to subdue him.
Mr. Hyde [lived with schizophrenia] — a perfect candidate to be dealt with in mental health court.
Dr. Scott Theriault, clinical director of forensics and specialty services for mental health, said the news has him "cautiously excited."
"In Nova Scotia, we have a great need for general mental health services," he said. "There’s no doubt that with more robust general mental health services, you would have fewer people with mental illnesses finding themselves in conflict with the law."
Ms. MacIsaac said there’s no word on when the specialized court could be up and running, or how much it will cost.
She said the department is keeping an eye on the performance of mental health courts in other areas, including Toronto and Waterloo.
Staff Sgt. Rudy Smith of Waterloo Regional Police said the court in his area has been a great success.
In operation since September 2005, the specialized court — held every Tuesday — provides more services faster, he said.
"They weren’t getting the counselling or the help they needed," Staff Sgt. Smith said of mentally ill offenders. "The whole idea is to get them as much help as possible quicker than if they’d gone through the normal process."
Joanna Blair, Mr. Hyde’s sister, was unaware Friday that other provinces have mental health courts, but said she thinks there should be improvements to the way society handles people with psychiatric problems.
"I think that in the psychotic condition (my brother) was in, . . . (he) should have been dealt with by subduing him in some manner other than a Taser gun, possibly by an injection of medication," she said. "And I say that hesitantly because I have questions about that" as well.
Ms. Blair said she thinks her brother should have been kept at the East Coast Forensic Hospital, where he could have met with a psychiatrist and been medicated before his bail hearing Thursday.
Jean Hughes, a professor at Dalhousie University who specializes in psychiatric nursing, said officers need specific training on how to deal with the mentally ill to ensure such encounters don’t escalate into violence.
She said offenders who are paranoid can be easily spooked, especially if they have had violent encounters with police in the past.
Mr. Hyde, for example, was shocked with a stun gun by police during an arrest in 2005, and his sister said he had had other altercations with police before then.
"Once you’ve had encounters where people have used violent or corrosive or intrusive means of working with you, then you learn to expect that that’s probably going to happen again," said Ms. Hughes, a former vice-president of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
"For the large portion of our population, the only people you can call are police. So that puts tremendous onus on them.
"What we do know is with good training, people can learn alternative methods for de-escalating situations."
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