September news and Treefest

The report from the second RenewingRiverview planning exercise open house is now available; get it HERE ( PDF)

The second open house was named the:  Creating goals open house
Lots of reading there too, read the background information

Well TREEFEST is just about here  Saturday September 13, 11am - 4pm

 after a lot of run-around from the bureaucrats; no you cannot have it there, or there, or there, they relented after pressure was applied, and guess what? the usual site at the HEY building was okayed. The HEY building will NOT be opened though.  And Charles Chan AKA "Charlie Chan" insists that we leave the site in better condition than when we started, which we always did anyway. More information can also be acquired from the City of Coquitlam's webpage about Treefest

       Have a look at the Treefest 2014 poster (in Google doc viewer),
                   or view it as a PDF  or a smaller version PDF


      Apparently the Hillside building is being repainted inside, and the outside shrubbery, and plantings have been removed, ( some of which I myself donated and planted, along with many others ), the Brookside building is also being cleaned up apparently, something to do with the huge overflow of the multiple issue patients at the Willingdon facility.
Not that long ago the folks from Willingdon were using Leeside and Brookside, but the contract run out, and they decamped back to Willingdon. Unknown when the photo op with the bureaucrats will be stating how they are increasing health care beds for people with issues.  But still good news to see the buildings being used for what they were designed for in the near future.  Sadly the taxpayer as usual foots the bill for all of this; the building were being used, then emptied of everything, then later refurnished and used for patient care again; then the cycle repeats itself, classic government waste.

      And a distressed person drove into the Centre Lawn building at high speed, and  both the driver and the building live on.  See a short video clip  ( YouTube )

As Riverview is now closed the care previously done at Riverview, is now non-existant or severely lacking, and has fallen onto Vancouver's shoulders.  "Crisis' of dealing with the mentally ill continues unabated for Vancouver police

Missing patient, Pancho Desperatus-Amator DeTanza

Headline reads:  Man goes missing from Coquitlam mental health facility on old Riverview grounds
Coquitlam RCMP page about the fellow

 Pancho Desperatus-Amator-DeTanza was last seen by staff around 9 a.m., Tuesday, July 29

He is described as a 37-year-old Hispanic man with short black hair. He is six feet, two inches tall, has brown eyes and last seen wearing a dark grey plaid shirt and blue jeans.

Police said he suffers from a mental disorder and should not be approached.

According to the Paraguayan newspaper, ABC Color, Desperatus-Amator-deTanza was arrested in 2004 for shooting Canadian diplomat Alvin Fehr in the shoulder.


[ Looks like two little tattoo's under his eyes ]

 UPDATE:  The RCMP is pleased to confirm that the 37-year-old male reported missing from Cypress Lodge has been located, and he is safe and sound.

Coquitlam council's vision for RView

Coquitlam Council released their revised vision for Riverview, after the government asked them (forced them to ? ) .

Coquitlam City news release
  Which also points to the Coquitlam City Riverview page where more detailed reports are available to download

CBC Early edition also interviewed Coquitlam mayor, Richard Stewart jump to the 2:11 mark to listen.


Also Global News covered the press release by the City.
     Coquitlam council unveils plan for Riverview Hospital
         Riverview Land Report

Hopefully this report will form a portion of the ongoing Renewingriverview information gathering team's report to the government.

And the printed media has finally put up some articles about the report generated by the City of Coquitlam:

The Province:  Riverview Hospital site should be developed into a health care campus: report
The Vancover Sun:  Coquitlam proposes resurrection of Riverview Hospital
        Revamped facility should house mental health, addiction and acute care services, report says


The Tri-City News:   Coquitlam endorses Riverview as health centre, hospital site
The Tri-Cities Now:    A new hospital for Riverview grounds?

UPDATE:  article in the Vancouver Sun : 
Pete McMartin: Trying to hit the sweet spot between asylums and the street.
    New version of Riverview psychiatric hospital may be a way to heal old wounds.
[ A better description than most about why the social disaster caused by closing down the hospital, is now so visible in the public, especially in Vancouver's downtown Eastside ]

April almost May

Tri-City News:  Survey says: There should be a wellness role for Riverview Hospital lands


Open houses for the Second round of Riverview consultations — with the theme “creating goals” — will be held Saturday, May 24 from 2 to 6 p.m. at Dogwood Pavilion in Coquitlam ( find Dogwood Pavilion using a Goole Earth kml file )
and
Wednesday, May 28 from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Kyle Centre in Port Moody. ( find Kyle Centre using a Google Earth kml file )

 Further open houses are slated for September and December. For more information, visit renewingriverview


Letters to the editor:  Just reopen Riverview

Also somewhat related to Riverview, but in Colony Farm:  Keep pipe out of park


UPDATE:  The Renewingriverview folk finally posted the next Second round of dates and information gathering opportunities on their website HERE 

Also the First round of public consultation summary has finally been released, download the PDF of it.

And I transcribed this letter to the editor and place it here since it is pertinent. ( sadly all to frequently not all news, letters, etc makes it into the online electronic side of the news industry.)

The Editor,

Re. “Bailey bridge battle brewing” (The Tri-City News, April 9) and “Hallway medicine?” (April 11).

The old expression “beating your head against a brick wall” came to mind as I contemplated the ongoing dispute between Coquitlam and New Westminster over the Band-Aid Bailey bridge at Braid Street.

It seems the Royal City believes it has some royal prerogative to unilaterally frustrate regional transportation issues despite the fact that it lost out to Victoria when the provincial capital was moved there 150 years ago. Such quaint and parochial delusions of importance, or the converse claim that poor little New Westminster is bullied by its larger neighbours, just don’t cut it.

This delusion persists despite the royal tour by New West city councillors of neighbouring councils pleading the case for their version of a Pattullo Bridge opt ion. (This tour bypassed Coquitlam council, perhaps because New West rightly believed its reception here would be even worse than the negative reactions they received in Port Coquitlam, Burnaby and Surrey.)

There are other regional problems and initiatives that may find solutions in a rethink outside of the box in which New Westminster likes to reside. One deleterious consequence of its failure to think regionally is the very real threat of constricted access to Royal Columbian Hospital, the only regional piece of infrastructure that New Westminster embraces. But I don’t think that even Port Moody’s push for expansion of Eagle Ridge Hospital’s emergency room offer anything but a stop-gap measure to ensure health, safety and timely services outside of New Westminster.

Perhaps it is time to push for a larger regional hospital presence outside of the Kingdom of New Westminster. It seems to me the Riverview Hospital site may present an alternative to the transportation grid-locked Royal Columbian Hospital. The Riverview site is well-served by transportation corridors, the site is available and money designated for a Royal Columbian expansion could be diverted to the benefit of all.

E.C. Eddy Coquitlam

Marching into April

A letter to the Vancouver Sun:  Keep Riverview for public use;  Showcase tree collection, set up B.C. centre of excellence for health care.

Article in the Sun:    Psychiatric ‘crisis’ leaves mentally ill in jail, documents say.  (overflowing for some time at the Forensic site )

Nice food for thought article in the North Shore Schizophrenia Society,(NSSS) newsletter:   Issue #133 March 2014.    Note:  the website also has a good selection of resource Links.

A night of history and hope
Nurse was killed in a hostage-taking at the old B.C. Penitentiary in 1975. I blogged before about it:
Mary Steinhauser Legacy fundraiser—An Evening of Story, Song & Dance, Sat., March 29, 2014 at 7:30pm, Terry Fox Theatre, Port Coquitlam.

A Confession  at the Georgia Strait:  Riverview Hospital    ( More of a rant really) I find it interesting that rants, attract more ranting in the comments, and that no real names are ever attributed.

Big bucks for Coquitlam byelection
      Where it is noted that Chris Wilson and  Bonita Zarrillo, received some monies for their war chests from, Brook Pooni Associates (consultants for Riverview Hospital’s redevelopment)

I would think that many would find this next link interesting for both providers and users.
HEALTHTALKONLINE is a database of hundreds of interviews with patients afflicted by various conditions, ranging from ethnic experiences in mental health to Alzheimer's to experiences with being a clinical trial subject to cancer. It also includes a section on youth experiences with illness.

Top two ambulance officials in B.C. quit following investigation into personnel issue (update).
Probably part of the reason why, ambulance personnel are frequently found using inadequate facilities.
At Riverview they  were in the Distribution centre / Pharmacy building, (they still appear to use a portion of the building )  but most of the time they utilize  Cottage 122


No mention yet about the Renewingrivierview  redevelopment process with the bizarre forum that they used Placespeak  (still having nightmares over that website, suddenly I and at least one other person that I know, had their names changed to anonymous, noticed a few others too, without our consent; can you say NSA ?  )

All the best, Anonymous    (I will wear it as a badge of honour )