CAMH CEO Responds to Coroner’s Jury Verdict and Recommendations in the Jeffrey James Inquest

The Coroner’s Inquest jury looking into the restraint-related death of CAMH forensic client Mr. Jeffrey James rendered its verdict and recommendations this morning after four weeks of hearing evidence and submissions. Although the jury’s documents are not yet available for public distribution, CAMH wishes to provide the following public statement:

First of all, on behalf of CAMH, we once again extended our condolences to the family of Mr. Jeffrey James, who have our deepest sympathies. We are sorry and saddened that Mr. James' death happened at CAMH.

This was a particularly challenging and complex case. CAMH went into this inquest process determined to learn everything that this tragic death had to teach us. The Coroner and the jury members are to be commended. They have worked very hard and put forth a number of important recommendations to try to prevent such a death from happening in the future.

Of the approximately 66 recommendations, seven are directed specifically at CAMH. We have not waited to begin making a number of positive changes, and have already implemented practices and policies that are the subject of some of the recommendations. CAMH certainly appreciates the recognition the Coroner has shown for CAMH’s efforts at restraint minimization.

We also value the recommendations the Coroner’s jury has made to help us improve our protocols and reduce the use of restraints at CAMH even further. We want to do better. We plan on working on implementing as many of these recommendations as are practically possible as quickly as we can.

Mr. James’ death, while tragic, has made an impact on minimizing the use of restraints at CAMH and beyond

The Office of the Coroner will be disseminating the recommendations to all Psychiatric and Schedule 1 Facilities. The verdict and recommendations will be available publicly on the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services website shortly.

Sincerely,

Paul Garfinkel, MD, FRCP(C)

President and CEO, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)