A Winnipeg man in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease will have to stay in jail for almost another three weeks.
Relatives of Joe McLeod have been told the 69-year-old will have a medical assessment Oct. 25 to see if he can be placed in long-term care.
McLeod has already been in the medical section of the Winnipeg Remand Centre for more than a month. He was arrested on Sept. 2 for assault after he became confused and didn't recognize his wife Rose.
When she tried to show him their wedding picture, Joe shoved her and broke the picture frame, which cut into Rose's chest. Family members called police.
According to his daughter, Faye Jashyn, family members were told by officers that the quickest way to get McLeod into a personal care home was to press charges so that there would be a record of violent behaviour.
McLeod was charged with assault and taken to the remand centre. But one month later, he is still there and his family is demanding to know why.
Officials with geriatric intake services in Winnipeg say they can't do an intake on a senior until he or she is out of remand. The family has been told McLeod is free to leave the remand centre if someone takes responsibility for him, but relatives say they fear for their safety and can no longer take care of him.
Rose McLeod said Wednesday she doesn't want to pursue the assault charge and just wants her husband out of jail.
"He doesn't know what happened, or why he's there," Rose told reporters.
Manitoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard, who organized the press conference at the legislature, said: "It's just wrong, wrong, wrong to have someone with Alzheimer's put in jail and to stay there for a month."
The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority's Chief Operating Officer Real Cloutier told the Canadian Press that McLeod's case is unusual because McLeod had not been enrolled in a provincial home care program that offers support to people with Alzheimer's and other conditions.
Cloutier said most Alzheimer's patients start with home care in the early stages of their illness and then are admitted to a long-term care home when family members can no longer take care of them.
He said McLeod's case was somewhat unique because the family was getting no assistance. He said it was "unfortunate that home care wasn't in the mix in the first place to be able to do (a) progressive assessment."
With a report from The Canadian Press
