CAMH has issued the following statement:
“CAMH takes this incident very seriously.
CAMH notified the Toronto Police Service as per protocol on July 3, 2019 at 6:50 pm, the day that the patient did not return. The individual was on an unaccompanied pass to the community, as permitted by the terms of his Ontario Review Board (ORB) disposition.
CAMH has launched an internal incident review in relation to this specific and rare incident. The highest level of attention and review of our policies and procedures related to this incident is underway. As additional precautions, CAMH is also taking the following immediate actions:
1. Physician-in-Chief oversight: The Physician-in Chief will oversee an additional process by which all existing passes and privileges will be re-assessed, with a focus on those patients who have unsupervised access to the community.
2. More clinical & security staff: CAMH is working to immediately increase clinical staffing levels to deliver enhanced assessments on our forensic units. CAMH is also working to immediately add security staff presence to all of our forensic units.
Each forensic patient at CAMH has a unique rehabilitation and recovery plan in place, which is overseen by the ORB. The ORB sets the parameters of supervision and management for people found Not Criminally Responsible.
The ORB has a system of privileges - which can include accompanied or unaccompanied community passes - that is essential to prepare forensic patients to be able to safely reintegrate with the community. Privileges such as community passes are only granted if several conditions are met, including ORB authorization.
We are not able to comment on anything relating to the ongoing police investigation.”