AHS reviewing what led to suicide at Peter Lougheed Centre

Two weeks after a psychiatric patientdied by suicideat the Peter Lougheed Centre, Alberta Health Servicessaid it's looking at the balancing act between freedom and treatment when it comes to mental illness.

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"We have to remember that these folks are patients, right?They're not prisoners and the goal is always to have people living as freely as possible with the least amount of restriction in the community as is safe," said Julie Kerr, senior operatingofficer for community, rural and mental health services in the Calgary Zone.

"And so sometimes part of the treatment is that you're testing people's ability to manage time off unit."

Review underway

The inpatient at the Peter Lougheed hospitaljumped from an upperlevelof a parking garage at the facility on July 25.Another inpatient diedin a similar mannerin 2006, which led to an inquiry.

One of the recommendations to come from thatinquiry was to lookatrenovating the parkade, but that never happened.

"It's that tradeoff of, do you put a lot of money into infrastructure to prevent a few incidents, or do you try to put money into services and programs?"said Kerr.

She saidthe hospital has taken steps to standardize how doctors assess patient risk and that AHS willreview all events leading up to the recentsuicide.

'Get together'

Mara Gruneau, with the Centre for Suicide Prevention, saidAHS shouldn't be heldsolely responsible.

"Enough of this passing the buck between justice and health and Alberta Health Services and the court system and the police and everything else. Get together," she said.

"We can't just push all of the issues onto one agency and expect them to solve it for everyone."

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