Members of the CAMH External Review Panel
TORONTO. On July 24, Dr. Catherine Zahn, President and CEO of The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health announced the panel tasked with conducting an external review of the program that provides passes to forensic patients and making recommendations for improvements. The panel will consist of the following individuals:
Adalsteinn Brown (Chair of the External Review Panel)
Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown is the Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Prior to becoming Dean, Steini was the Director of the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and the Dalla Lana Chair of Public Health Policy at the University of Toronto. Past positions include senior leadership roles in policy and strategy within the Ontario Government, founding roles in start-up companies, and extensive work on performance measurement. He received his undergraduate degree in government from Harvard University and his doctorate from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
Professor Harry Kennedy
Harry Kennedy has been involved in the reform and re-organization of the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum, Dublin and in 2020 will move the service to a new purpose built secure forensic hospital, with new services including a forensic child and adolescent service, a forensic mental health and developmental disorders service and an extended women’s service. Professor Kennedy has been involved in the design, commissioning and transition to new forensic hospitals and new models of care twice in the last 20 years. Professor Kennedy has taken part in invited reviews of academic and service departments of forensic psychiatry in various jurisdictions and as invited expert for the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Cruel and Inhumane Treatment and Torture.
Professor James R.P. Ogloff
James Ogloff is trained as a lawyer and psychologist. He is Foundation Professor of Forensic Behavioural Science and Director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also Executive Director of Psychological Services and Research at Forensicare, Victoria, Australia’s statewide forensic mental health service. Professor Ogloff has specific expertise in forensic psychology, forensic mental health, mental health in the corrections system, mental health law, and the assessment and management of patients and offenders. He served as British Columbia’s first Director of Mental Health Services for Corrections. He is a Past-President of the Canadian Psychological Association and a Past-President of the American Psychology-Law Society.
Professor Michael Doyle
Professor Michael Doyle is a Deputy Director of Nursing and Quality at South West Yorkshire Partnership Trust and an Honorary Clinical Chair in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester. He has worked in mental health services for over 30 years. He has previously been accredited by the BABCP as a CBT therapist and has worked as Nurse Consultant specialising in Clinical Risk in Forensic Services. He has also served as President of the International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services. He has attracted significant research funding and published widely on psychosocial risk assessment, formulation and interventions, forensic mental health nursing and related subjects. He currently leads the West Yorkshire & Harrogate Health and Care Partnership suicide prevention advisory network. Professor Doyle has provided training, consultancy, evaluation and advice to health, social care organizations and criminal justice agencies across the UK, Europe and beyond.
Matt Torigian
Matt Torigian is a leader in policing and public administration in Ontario, with a career that has spanned over 30 years and touched on all aspects of community safety. Matt served as the Deputy Minister of Community Safety in Ontario from 2014–2018 with a portfolio that included public safety and the Ontario Provincial Police, including police education and training. Additionally, for a time, he was responsible for overseeing Ontario’s correctional system. Prior to his appointment to the Ontario Public Service, Matt served 29 years with the Waterloo Regional Police Service and was appointed Waterloo Region’s fifth chief of police on December 12, 2007, a role he held for seven years. Matt is a past president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police and served as a member of the board of directors with the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police. Currently, he serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto, where he is leading a global policing initiative within the Global Justice Lab.
Mark Handelman (Minister of Health’s recommended panel member)
Mark Handelman was called to the Ontario Bar in 1978 and earned his Masters of Health Sciences in bioethics from the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics in 2005. Until 2001, he practised law in London, Ontario, including civil litigation, criminal defence and prosecution. He was one of Ontario's first members of the Official Guardian Child Representation Program. Mark was appointed to the Consent & Capacity Board in 1998 and became a Vice Chair and Senior Lawyer Member in 2000. He served as Acting Toronto Regional Vice Chair and then Regional Vice Chair in 2001, for which he stopped practising law and moved to Toronto. He was the Board's only Vice Chair for quality assurance and presided at over 2300 Board Hearings—including the majority of the Board’s “end of life” cases. Mark was reappointed to The Consent and Capacity Board in August 2019. He was also a Lawyer Member of the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal for 10 years, where he mediated and adjudicated Human Rights complaints. Mark is Counsel to the law firm Whaley Estate Litigation, advising on capacity, guardianship and estate litigation matters. He is also a member of The Ontario Law Reform Commission Advisory Committee on End of Life Decisions and of the Joint Centre for Bioethics Assisted Death Task Force.
External Review Terms of Reference
September 2019
Background
The forensic mental health system has been subject to debate and public interest. CAMH has an obligation to manage the balance between patient recovery and public safety in a manner that ensures the confidence of patients, families, our community, the general public, and government.
In response to concerns regarding forensic patient unapproved leaves of absence (F-ULOA) from CAMH, CAMH President & CEO, Dr. Catherine Zahn has commissioned an external review of passes and privileges involving forensic patients. The external review panel will include a representative recommended by the Ontario Minister of Health and the report will be to the CAMH Board of Trustees, via Dr. Zahn.
External Review Panel Membership
The review panel will include:
- Chair
- Up to four international experts in forensic mental health;
- Policing/ public safety expert;
- Minister of Health recommendation;
- Additional advice as required from outside administrative legal counsel.
Confirmed members are:
- Dr. Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown, Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto (Chair)
- Prof. Harry Kennedy, forensic psychiatrist and executive clinical director, National Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital, Ireland
- Prof. James Ogloff, forensic psychologist and Foundation Professor of Forensic Behavioural Science and Director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
- Dr. Michael Doyle, forensic mental health nursing specialist, international forensic expert, University of Manchester
- Matt Torigian, Distinguished Fellow, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy
- Mark Handelman, Minister of Health’s appointee, Member of the Consent and Capacity Board
Scope
The External Review will undertake a systemic review of CAMH’s current processes related to the approval of passes and privileges to forensic patients and will make recommendations to inform future policy and practice.
The Review Panel will:
- Examine CAMH’s policies, processes and procedures for granting passes and privileges for forensic patients;
- Examine current practice and performance relative to existing processes;
- Examine CAMH’s processes and protocols for police notification and information sharing for F-ULOAs.
To accomplish this, the Review Panel will:
- Assess best practices for granting passes and privileges for forensic patients across Ontario, Canada, and internationally;
- Have access to CAMH’s incident reviews of recent high-profile F-ULOAs, conducted under the Quality of Care Information Protection Act (QCIPA);
- Interview CAMH staff in the forensic services and across the organization;
- Engage with patients and family members;
- Meet with external stakeholders including Toronto Police Services, members of the Ontario Review Board; community agency representatives and others as deemed necessary.
Deliverables
The review panel will submit:
- A final report by year-end 2019 to the CAMH Board of Trustees, via the President and CEO, Dr. Zahn.
- The final report will be made publicly available.
More Information:
Media Relations, CAMH
416-595-6015 or media@camh.ca
An external review panel has provided CAMH with the final report and recommendations about the system of passes and privileges for forensic patients. Read the report, recommendations and CAMH Action Plan here.