Serena Perry inquest: Community treatment wasn't an option

New Brunswick and the territories are the only places in Canada that don't have community treatment legislation to ensure patients like Serena Perry take their medication, under supervision, while living in the community, a coroner's inquest heard on Wednesday.

Perry, 22, an involuntary psychiatric patient at the Saint John Regional Hospital, was found dead in the hospital's amphitheatre on Feb. 14, 2012, with a blue garment wrapped loosely around her neck.

The inquest is being held to determine the facts surrounding Perry's death. The jury may also make recommendations aimed at preventing similar deaths.

Mental health nurse clinician Karen Koven told the inquest Perry suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and would not take her medication when she was not hospitalized.

It was the third time Perry had been admitted to the psychiatric unit, said Koven.

Although there had been discussions about putting her into a group home, Perry refused and her family was also against the idea, Koven said.

​Dr. Vinod Joshi, a psychiatrist who had been treating Perry since 2009, said he tried to get her to understand she had to take her medications.

But she heard voices and suffered from religious delusions, he said. "God was talking to her. God had told her she didn't need to take any more medications."

About 40 per cent of patients with Perry's condition are non-compliant when it comes to taking their medication, said Joshi. As a result, they often relapse as soon as they're released, he said.

John Barry, who is representing the Horizon Health Network, says the hospital corporation would support a community treatment program.

"You can see the advantage," he told reporters outside the courthouse.

"It's been advocated in New Brunswick by the chiefs of psychiatry in all New Brunswick hospitals. And I fully anticipate it will be one of the recommendations that will come out of Horizon at the end of this inquest," he said.

Such a move would require amendments to the province's Mental Health Act.

The inquest continues on Thursday. Three weeks have been set aside.