December 2012

The Riverview Heritage Conservation Plan, has been completed, read the report and decide if it adequately describes the heritage values.
Man who broke out of Colony Farm back in care

But we cannot have a full house, so another patient goes missing:
Patient missing from PoCo psychiatric hospital
The Coquitlam RCMP websites information about this patient, Kurt Derksen, age 58. Note that he went missing in Richmond, on a visit with his family, and that he had a full beard, last time he was seen.
Missing Port Coquitlam psychiatric hospital patient found in Ontario.
    [ So Kurt Derksen is now back in custody.]

Patricia Donna Reed, rest in peace

Jury recommends better response measures after woman dies at Riverview

Coroners make recommendations after mentally-ill woman's death

Daniel Reed, Patricia Donna Reed's husband.  Picture: Carmine Marinelli, 24Hours

           Family calls for better monitoring of mental patients

                  Missing person search lacked leader: inquest

                        Riverview security wasn't informed of missing patient for 8 hours, inquest hears.
                                             [Sounds all to familiar too me!]

                                Inquest urges use of swipe cards, GPS
                                           Mental patient ‘died alone in a ditch’, jury told
                           Slip-ups and delays in locating patient outlined;
                                Lack of zone-by-zone grid search meant no one looked in ditch where body was found

[A little late! The inquest was conveniently called after the hospital was closed.

 Timeline: Missing February 9,2011, found five days later, inquest posted (PDF) on August 23,2012, to run from December 3-7, 2012,  this stinks of political interference, since the hospital was officially closed in July, 2012. Coroners Verdict, (PDF)

  I wonder if the present societies who are using the site, are going to read and enable the changes recommended in this report? The ultimate responsibility lies with the CEO, and no censure will occur, as usual.  In theory Leslie Arnold was the CEO, but I find that Leslie Arnold and Michael Marchbank are actually both the Co-chairs. Heads should roll, this type of  incident has occurred before and the lessons from it were not learned. Can you say "Peter Principle"?]

UPDATE:       Shane Yorke left a message  19 October 2015

Very sad. I was the officer that found Patricia Reed's body in Feb a few years ago. She was the elderly lady that went missing and past away on the RVH Grounds. The hospital staff only cared about covering their ass and they notified Security that she was missing, but when I asked if they wanted us to conduct a search, they replied, "No", just keep a lookout for her. Well keeping a lookout for a lady on 240 acres of land, and over 68 buildings, while dealing with alarm responses, aggressive patients along with our other duties was impossible. Finally a search was initiated after a few days, but staff said not to bring in extra staff to conduct a full search.Just search when we had time between calls. What people didn't read in the paper was that the RVH patients had their own patient support / security that transported and looked for patients. Other than driving around on the paved roadways, they did not do any searching.
This was a very sad story, but honestly, when you have a transit system running through a mental facility, and patients have outdoor privileges, they're going to leave the site.

Great Blog BTW, and yes I testified at her inquest. 

--30--

Sadly the story that Shane wrote is all to familar to me. From what I have been told in the past when the hospital had its own dedicted patient and grounds security; a search would be made of the grounds by vehicle and on foot, they would start at one end and sweep throught the property, and frequently it would also include some of the patients; this meant that  a thorough search was made, by people who were familiar with the property. Sadly this protocol was thrown away when the security was privatized. 

Thanks Shane for telling us what you witnessed, and I hope that this event is not haunting you in any way.

More links about Patricia Reeds disappearance: ( sadly some of the links above have been removed )
Simple security measures may have been enough to save Patricia Reeds life

Demand for answers into Riverview patients death

Coroner to hold inquest into Riverview patients death

She died alone in a ditch: Sis
 It took authorities five days to find a mental patient who went missing last year on the grounds at Riverview Hospital, by which time she was dead.