Case reveals long wait for public guardianship
Judge calls legal system blunt tool for repeat offender with mental health issues
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Territorial court heard Friday that a probation officer's attempt to get help for a mentally ill man with a lengthy criminal record is being stymied by lengthy wait times for approval with the territory's public guardianship office.
A probation officer report about Jacob Griep, 32, written last fall says he was referred to the territorial office of the public guardian in August. The referral was received but untouched for three months. The probation officer was told the wait time for his case to be reviewed was at least a year.
Public guardianship, run by the Department of Health and Social Services, allows family or close friends of people incapable of making their own decisions about personal or health care become their legal guardian. The public guardian's office can also be appointed guardian if no suitable family members or friends can be found to act as guardians. There are currently 68 people in the NWT under public guardianship with 50 names on the waiting list, according to a backgrounder supplied by the department.
The office has three staff members and admission is a lengthy process, in part because of high demand and the difficulty the health department has finding "health care professionals qualified to undertake the rigorous assessment required to support an application for guardianship," according to the background report.
The probation officer recommended the program given Griep's diagnosed schizophrenia and major depression. Griep has more than 75 convictions on his criminal record, according to Judge Robert Gorin, who said he's familiar with the man's history.
"The criminal court process is a very blunt instrument when it comes to dealing with people who have the problems that Mr. Griep has," Gorin said from the bench Friday as he sent the man to jail for 105 days for entering The Black Knight Pub, an establishment a probation order barred him from entering. In the past year he has at least six convictions for stealing from the pub or breaking orders to stay away from it. The court was told Griep spent more of 2015 in jail than out, and only about two weeks of this year outside jail. Defence lawyer Peter Harte, not involved in the Griep case but who attended the sentencing out of interest, said he has represented at least three people who have had similar problems getting the help they need.
"It's tragic that mental health issues end up leaving accused people going to jail rather than mental health facilities," Harte said in an interview.
Griep's defence lawyer, Tracy Bock, highlighted the long wait list for public guardianship during the sentencing hearing, calling it sad the support isn't easily accessed. The lawyer attempted to find out if the wait list length had improved since last fall but told the judge "the situation does not appear to have changed."
The probation report states that a case worker for Griep suggested placement in a southern care facility, who said "Jacob has exhausted the resources available to him within Yellowknife."
The case worker said guardianship would likely be required given the man's history of crime, alcohol and drug use, and past issues with care in the city.
The report notes Griep often doesn't take his medication, is homeless and has unpredictable behaviour.
"If and when the guardianship is obtained, Jacob will then likely qualify for southern assisted living placements which would be able to adequately address his mental illness and addictions," the probation officer's report notes.
Griep, Bock said, had a chaotic and unstable upbringing in Churchill, Man., where he was physically and emotionally abused by his mother. He was abandoned by his father at age three. He went through three or more foster care placements, obtaining a Grade 9 education. Bock said he's now living at the Salvation Army and lacks support in the community. Griep's only serious violent crime was in 2012, when he pushed a woman to the ground causing severe injuries to her face while fleeing a grocery store.
Crown prosecutor Morgan Fane said all factors about an offender are taken into account when considering sentencing recommendations to the judge, including the person's mental health and upbringing.
The judge, in issuing the sentences for the breaches and a break and enter, said he must not only weigh the man's mental health as a contributor to the crimes but his aboriginal status.
"It's far, far more difficult to stay out of trouble when one comes from the background that Mr. Griep does, the historical injustices that have been visited upon Canada's aboriginal peoples," said Gorin.
