After three weeks of testimony one of the saddest court cases we've ever covered has been adjourned to September. Linda Lorraine Howe, the woman accused in the March 2009 shooting at Christenson Village Care Home will now have four more months to wait to learn her fate.
And our community will also have those months to dwell on the testimony presented. We will have the time to question why someone with Howe's challenges was ever housed in what is primarily a seniors' care facility in the first place.
Why we wonder did no one sound an alarm bell long before the situation deteriorated to the extent that someone's life was almost lost. How did Howe come to accumulate a small arsenal in her room? Did no one care sufficiently for this woman to notify RCMP that she was badly out of touch with reality and that there could be dire consequences?
We do not fault Christenson Village's employees, they were in our estimation doing their job to the best of their ability within the scope of the privacy laws. But where were her friends and family in this sad situation? Who changed the lock on her door and how could that have happened within a building where comings and goings are duly noted?
How too we wonder did she manage to install her own surveillance apparatus? Surely that wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
It's a sad reflection on the state of mental health care in our area when someone so obviously unsuited to be was in a facility where she was basically left to her own devices. What alternatives are there on the Coast for someone who requires long term mental health care?
We don't pretend to have all the answers. We only know that there are many victims in this tragedy - the staff and residents of Christenson Village, their families who must have been scared out of their minds when this happened, the RCMP members who attended the shooting and particularly the constable who had to make the decision to shoot Howe and finally Howe herself.
It's long past time for our health services to bring mental health care into the 21st century. The ultimate question is how many more Howes are out there?
- Cathie Roy
