Howard Hyde Death Inquiry: System failing mentally ill

An editorial published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

THE SYSTEM for dealing with mental health emergencies in Nova Scotia broke down almost totally in the tragic case leading to the death of Howard Hyde.

A judicial inquiry into the circumstances of the Dartmouth man’s death in November 2007 has so far heard just a few days of testimony. Even so, it’s already abundantly clear that both better training for police officers on how to handle mental health cases as well as a stronger commitment across the justice system to properly deal with mental health issues are urgently needed.

When Mr. Hyde, who weeks earlier had stopped taking his medications to treat his schizophrenia, became violent on the night of Nov. 21, his common-law wife appropriately called the mental health emergency help line.

Mr. Hyde never got the help he needed.

Records show dispatch informed the officers of the mental health nature of the call. Mr. Hyde’s widow has testified she told at least one officer of her husband’s schizophrenia and the fact he’d been off his medications. Despite that, the officer who arrested Mr. Hyde told the inquiry he doesn’t recall any evidence at the scene that would have led him to reasonably assume a mental health problem.

After Mr. Hyde was Tasered twice at the police station after trying to escape and had to be revived using CPR, he was taken to the QEII emergency. The doctor who examined him obviously believed Mr. Hyde had mental health issues, as she gave the officers directions to return him to hospital if he could not get a psychiatric evaluation.

Her instructions were ignored. Instead, Mr. Hyde stayed in police custody, made a court appearance and then spent the night in the correctional facility in Burnside. When his wife called there to inform them of Mr. Hyde’s mental health condition, she testified staff told her they couldn’t deal with her because of confidentiality concerns.

The next morning, Mr. Hyde collapsed after a physical struggle with jail staff. He was pronounced dead at hospital shortly afterwards.

The police have admitted they could use more training on dealing with mental health issues.

There are still weeks of testimony left for Judge Anne Derrick to hear. The inquiry cannot find anyone liable, criminally or civilly.

Still, it’s clear the system badly mishandled a case involving mental health. Since Mr. Hyde was hardly the first or last person with mental health problems to come in contact with law enforcement, we look forward to Judge Derrick’s ideas on how to best fix what’s broken.