Jury recommends tighter search procedures.... Mystery still surrounds resident's death By SUSAN LESJAK Free Press Staff No one will ever know for sure why 65-year-old Durham Centre resident Vern Green, went missing last spring or what the events were that led to his body being found in a wooded area in north Oshawa 17 dý,v later. The evidence heard at the inquest into his death last week, however, did succeed in convincing the coroner's jury that more could have been done to locate the missing resident. In its verdict Thur- sday, the four-women, one-man jury made six recommendations aimed at the prevention of similar deaths in the future. All concerned the search and rescue policies of the Durham Centre administration. The jury's foremost recommendation was that a full-scale search be executed within two hours of the disap- pearance of any Durham Centre resident. The existing policy exempts the higher functioning residents from the sear- ch policy, as they are considered "less at risk" if missing than more severely retarded residents. Because Vern Green was considered high functioning, the centre did not execute a ful- search for him until eleven days after he eloped and then it was only in the Witby har- bor area near the in- stitution and not of the town ordarea at large. According to the testimony of several ýýLFR PREQ Vol 15 No 41 Wediiesday, October 9, 1985. 28 Pages Fire prevention theme is "Get Out. A live" This is Fire Prevention Week not only in Whitby but across Ontario as well. The theme of this year's promotional program is "Let's All Plan to Get Out Alive." For the last few weeks, the Whitby Fire Depar- tment and the local McDonald's Restaurant have been visiting Whitby public schools teaching local youngsters how to plan fire escape routes from their homes in case of fire. In the photo above, Firefighter Ralph Perry (centre, in uniform) goes over the brochure on how to get out alive with Jason Giles, 8, and Natalie Everest, 7, both grade 3 students at West Lynde Public School on Michael Blvd. Looking on is Shari Shewan, assistant manager of the Thickson Rd. McDonald's Restaurant. McDonald's has distributed this brochure which tells local youngsters how to plan home fire escape routes. If they fill them out and bring them to the Whitby Fire Hall on Brock St. S. they will receive a Fire Safety Award from the restaurant and the fire department. The youngster who designs the best escape plan will be named Whitby's "Fire Chief for a Day". He or she will get to take over Fire Chief Ed Crouch's duties one day next week. Throughout Fire Prevention Week, the main fire station will be holding an open house. All members of the public are welcome to inspect Whitby's main fire fighting facility and take in many of the displays, slide shows and films that will be shown. The open house will be held until the end of the week. Our office is closed Monday in honor of the Thanksgiving Day Holiday next Monday, the offices of the Whitby Free Press will be closed. Those community organizations and in- dividuals wishing to submit coming events or other news items are advised to do so before Fridavat 10 a m The deadline for both Emporium and Classified advertising will be 12 noon while that for display adver- tising will be 2 p.m. The publisher and staff of the Whitby Free Press would like to wish all of our readers a safe and happy holiday weekend. staff members, Vern Green was known to be at two downtown Whitby restaurants the day af- ter he went missing. If the search had been initiated earlier, it is likely Green would have been found, OPSEU lawyer Pat Sheppard, pointed out. "Vern was known to stay out late so we didn't really get worried about him enough to call the police," said the night staff person working in Green's house on the night he failed to return. "Vern liked to get out and have his little glass of wine," the staff member explained. "He used to leave the in- stitution for periods of time and would stay out as late as 1 a.m. on oc- casion." A resident's freedom to go into Whitby and other places on their own, is "very impor- tant" in preparation for future placement into the community, ex- plained Durham Centre administrator Dennis Ferenc. "The philosophy is to give the residents as much responsibility as soon as possible." The inquest was told that Green spent most of his waking hours out- side an institution. He worked at a sheltered workshop in Ajax and in his free time, enjoyed taking long walks or hit- chhiking around the community. While the 65-year-old "mildly retarded man may have been high- functioning compared to the other residents at Durham Centre, he would still have been "at-risk" if lost, said his primary counsellor Laura Dubblestein. Vern couldn't read or write, tell time or distinguish between north and south, she ex- plained. The counsellor argued that all residents should be considered in danger if they are missing. "They're at risk either to them- selves or to the com- munity or else they wouldn't be in an in- stitution," she con- cluded. Another issue ex- plored during the inquest was whether there was any connec- tion between Green's disappearance and his imminent transfer into a group home. The lawyer appearing on behalf of Durham Cen- tre's unionized em- ployees suggested that Green ran away because he was frightened to leave his "home" of 47 years. The union, which has come out strongly against the impending closure, has indicated that Green's death may well have been one of several human casualties resulting from the closures. While residential counsellor Mary Shearer testified that Vern had voiced con- cern about leaving Durham Centre, most of the other staff members described the resident's attitude towards the move as positive. "Everytime I saw him, he was anxious to know where he was going and when," said Phillippa Wilmer, Vern's case manager. Shearer, however, said that Vern had threatened in her presence "to take off" if he were forced to live in a group home. The inquest was told that Vern knew he was moving as early as Sep- tember of 1984. While no one knew exactly where he would be placed (sin- ce several new group homes were under con- struction), he was told it would be in the Whitby area. When Sheppard asked Wilmer whether she felt such notice was adequate, to prepare handicapped person for a major life change, Wilmer replied that "their sense of timing was different than ours," and residents were often unable to project for long periods in advance. While the jury was not moved by Sheppard to make any recommen- dations regarding the closure, coroner Dr. Peter Noble, did see fit to include a recommen- dation of his own in his comments to the jurors. Noble recommended that when closing in- stitutions such as Durham Centré con- crete settings (such as the group homes into which the residents are to be placed) should be provided to ease residents into the settings. Sheppard said after the inquest that while he was disappointed with the coroner jury's lack of recommendations concerning the closure, he was hopeful that the coroner's own recom- mendation would carry weight. Sheppard said that the union was pleased with the jury's recommen- dations to improve the search and rescue policy of the institution.