Health system failed man charged with Dauphin hotel arson, friend says

A man facing arson charges for burning down the Towers Hotel in Dauphin, Man., shows the failure of the mental health care system, some say.

"I feel [the fire] could have been prevented if the mental health system functioned better," said Janice Delorme, one of 25 people who called the hotel home before it burned on Thursday.

The residents are some of Dauphin's most vulnerable, and they were all left without a home.

But what saddens Delorme most is that her long-time friend, a 30-year-old man also living in the hotel, is charged with starting the fire.

"He was suffering from mental illness. He's been very sick and no one's been able to get him proper treatment," she said.

Delorme said the man lives with schizophrenia and in recent weeks he began a downward spiral. She and others were trying to get him help.

"He wasn't OK," she said. "There had been people who had called the mental health mobile crisis line. I had spoken with the police."

​Delorme said one evening a week before the fire, she and four others in the hotel had called police, concerned about their friend's state.

"They just kept coming and saying he's fine," she said.

Delorme said her friend had been admitted to hospital on previous occasions, but he would be released the next day.

The night before the fire, the pair visited the hospital and the man was planning to visit Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg the next day. The fire happened instead.

Delorme, who suffers from a mental illness herself, said the mental health care system failed her friend.

She said hospitals need to assess people for a few weeks, not a day or two, so they can be properly treated. When it comes to treating mental illness, treatment is largely voluntary, and she disagrees with that approach.

"It's useless. People with mental illnesses, someone has to get help for them and someone has to make the decision for them because they can become incapable of making that decision for themselves and understanding when they're unwell," she said. "Something needs to be done.

"It just seems to be like, shove them all back into the streets and let them cope. And that's not very realistic to let a sick person cope with life.

"I am hoping now that this has happened he will get the help that he needs."

Fire a wake-up call, says director

Jeremy Smith, executive director of Dauphin Friendship Centre, says he is not surprised to learn about the circumstances that may have led to this fire.

"I think it's a great wake-up call for Dauphin and for the province of Manitoba," Smith told CBC News.

He said Dauphin faces the same gaps in the system that all areas in Manitoba do: the demand for mental health services and hospital beds far exceeds what is available.

Smith said under the current system, the RCMP only have the power to bring someone to hospital.
Once that person is assessed, in most circumstances they do not have to stay in the hospital for treatment. It's voluntary.

"Unfortunately, our law states they can say, 'I don't want your services and I'm leaving,'" he said.

"It's only in the worst cases that the hospital can actually say, 'We are going to keep you here against your will because you don't recognize the threat,'" he added.

"It's really unfortunate because quite often people don't know where's the fine line between being a threat to yourself or other people and being OK."

8 beds for mental health patients in Dauphin

Smith also said mental health workers assessing patients aren't always getting the full picture.

"If a person is going in [for an assessment], quite often they're going to be on their best behaviour," he said.

"Mental health workers don't see what happens behind closed doors, what happens when a person gets on the street ... or consumes drugs or alcohol."

Smith said the province needs to look at the criteria surrounding involuntary admittance and increase the number of beds for mental health patients.

In Dauphin, an area that services tens of thousands of people, there are eight beds within its mental health unit, he said.

"I've seen the fact that the beds are full. There's no way that they can put more people into their if beds are full," he said.

Smith also says that rural areas face greater barriers. For example, in Dauphin there is an affordable housing crisis, so often vulnerable people are living in conditions that impede their success.

He also points out that Dauphin has no transit service, so accessing treatment can be difficult.

Blessing in disguise

As of Monday, everyone displaced in the hotel fire have found a place to live, according to the friendship centre.

However, because of the lack of low-income housing available in Dauphin, some people have had to move as far as Swan River, which is a two-hour drive away.

In total, 29 people have had to find new places to live.

Wally Pulek and his wife, Jeanette, were among those displaced, but the pair say the hotel burning down was a blessing in disguise.

"It's actually a good feeling that it happened," said Pulek, who lived in the hotel for the last two years.

"Living under those conditions was not right. It was a fire hazard to begin with, never mind every other hazard that was in there."

Pulek said the hotel's condition was horrendous — run-down, leaking, and nothing maintained.

"We had water leaking in our kitchen, since we moved in. That's what we had to look forward to every morning," he said. "We put the coffee on and you're stepping in water all over the floor."

Medical conditions have left he and his wife unable to work and there was no where else to turn for affordable housing in Dauphin.

"Everything is $850-900 a month. There's no way you can afford it, so that's the environment you put yourself into," he said.

Delorme said those on social assistance or with mental illness often face discrimination when it comes to housing. She's felt it herself.

Both she and Pulek hope the fire fuels change in Dauphin.

"I'd like to know what the city is going to do," said Pulek. "They really haven't learned that much in the last 50, 60 years about progress. They're offering people nothing."

Pulek said there needs to be more respectful, low-income housing options.