Reference no: EM133553731

Question: March 27, 1997, Zachary Antidormi, two and a half years old, was stabbed to death by his neighbour,58-year-old Lucia Piovesan.Police arrested Ms Piovesan and charged her with first-degree murder. The investigation revealed thatMs Piovesan had lost her son to AIDS in 1991, and she believed that his soul had been reincarnated inZachary's body. She told police, and later psychiatrists, that she killed Zachary to free her son's spirit sothat it could be reborn in her daughter's child.A thorough investigation by police and mental health professionals during and after Ms Piovesan's trialconfirmed that she had been suffering from untreated paranoid schizophrenia for at least 25 years.Prior to the killing, Ms Piovesan's family and the police had repeatedly and unsuccessfully soughtinvoluntary treatment for her under the apprehension provisions of Ontario's Mental Health Act.53. Shewas never diagnosed or treated properly, nor did the mental health system consider her delusionalthinking to be a credible danger to herself or others-until she killed Zachary.In the wake of Zachary's death and similar tragedies, St Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and the HamiltonPolice Service partnered to form the Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST), which consists ofmental health workers and a wide range of other acute care providers, including police. It providestimely, coordinated responses to people in mental health crisis, if they self-refer by calling the COASThotline. Subsequently, the hospital and police created the Mobile Crisis Rapid Response Team (MCRRT).It differs from COAST in that mental health trained police officers are teamed with highly qualifiedmental health professionals and designated as 24/7, front-line 911 responders to persons in mentalhealth crisis.In 2015, during its first eight months of full-time operation, the MCRRT program increased its front-lineresponses to persons in crisis by more than 200 percent, while further decreasing apprehension rates to20 to 25 percent The second effort to deal more effectively with these situations was the hospital's COASTprogram. Why was that inadequate?