The death of a child leads to big changes in policing and mental-health response
Dr. Lori Triano-Antidormi stands near a photograph of her son Zachary, after a press conference in Hamilton, Ont. on Jan 21. In 1997, Zachary, who was two and a half years old, was murdered by a neighbour outside his home and Zachary’s Legacy will be a new hub for mental-health outreach workers.On Tuesday morning, a smartly dressed woman stood to address a group of Hamilton police officers, paramedics and health care professionals.
One problem dogged the family’s happy life: a nightmare neighbour, Lucia Piovesan, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. She berated Zachary’s parents over parking arrangements, shouted threats at them, brandished a crowbar and, in one case, pushed Ms. Triano-Antidormi to the sidewalk while she was carrying her son.
A 1999 inquest delved further into how the system had broken down. Its jury issued 60 recommendations. Among them were calls for more training for police on how to deal with people in mental-health crisis and better reporting and information sharing on incidents involving mental illness. On one visit this Monday, plainclothes officer Ryan Komadowski and outreach worker Yvanna Master went to see an elderly woman who had phoned a crisis line to complain that someone had been trying to break into her apartment and that her neighbours and landlord were conspiring against her. Ms. Master listened with sympathy to her confused, sometimes tearful account and offered to connect her with a respite centre where she might get some rest and help.
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