UPDATE AUGUST 30, 2023:
There was a lady at a plaza near Bathurst and Kenton. She has a Tim Horton's card and a jacket to give Andrew, if she can locate him. PLEASE HELP! He will need the jacket. She says it is getting cold now. It could go down to 9 degrees for the next three nights!
SIGNIFICANT UPDATE:
Someone sent me a phone number that enabled me to reach Premier Doug Ford's Cabinet answering machine. I was asked for my name, phone number and e-mail address. I pleaded with Premier Ford to do what he could to help bring Andrew home on a medical transfer.
MOST RECENT SIGHTINGS TODAY:
Andrew walked14.9k today.
4:15 p.m. A lady saw Andrew at Bathurst and Steeles. She tried to offer him money but he politely refused. He had a protein bar and Gatorade. He walked in to the TD Bank. This was at the Metros Plaza.
3:42 p.m. Andrew was on Bathurst and Kenton Drive in North York. He had a bag of chips and a drink. He was walking pretty fast.
3:26 p.m. Andrew is at Bathurst and Finch. He is going northbound on Bathurst. Three photos were sent.
1:41 p.m. Andrew is walking quickly on Bathurst headed north on the west side of the street.
1:25 p.m. Andrew is at Bathurst and Wilson, just west of Bathurst on Wilson. A photo was sent.
Kim Zarzour, Torstar reporter was unable to release the second part of her story, "GUT WRENCHING NIGHTMARE": FROM P.E.I. TO TORONTO MOTHER SEARCHES TO HELP HER HOMELESS SON." It will be available soon.
ADVOCACY
Hon. Sylvia Jones, Minister of Health has not contacted me yet. The Minister has the authority to grant a medical transfer order via a provision in the Ontario Mental Health Act.
I have been advised to increase advocacy efforts. Please contact Premier Doug Ford at Premier@Ontario.ca 416-327 4300, I left a message. The other numbers were forwarded to this number.
Hon. Sylvia Jones Sylvia.jones@Ontario.ca 416-327-4300
Hon. Michael Tibollo michael.tibollo@ontario.ca 416-327-4300
PLEASE BRING ANDREW BRYENTON HOME TO PE.I. PETITON
THE PLEASE BRING ANDREW BRYENTON HOME PETITION has 7011 signatures. Change.org suggests that 7500 is the point when decision makers take the petition seriously and take ACTION! We need your signatures. PLEASE HELP. It is fast and free. Here is the link: https://chng.it/TMKMZfHH2p
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PREMIER DOUG FORD'S MESSAGE
PREMIER DOUG FORD sent me this message August 23, 2023.
"Thanks for reaching out about your son Andrew and his current health situation. I'm sorry to hear about the difficult experiences and challenges you've had to overcome.
With that said, I do appreciate your insight on this matter and take your concerns seriously. I've forwarded your email to the Honourable Sylvia Jones, Minister of Health, for her information."
Thanks again for contacting me.
Doug Ford
Premier of Ontario
c: The Honourable Sylvia Jones
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MEDIA COVERAGE
The GLOBE AND MAIL story was written by Marcus Gee published August 25, 2023. Photographs taken by John Morris. I have posted the two photographs in the story.
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LOBBYING EFFORTS
I am lobbying for a P.E.I. Missing Persons Act, P.E.I. Community Treatment Order and Federal Advanced Medical Directive. I have sent e-mails to MP Sean Casey, Premier Dennis King, Hon. Mark McLane, Minister of Health, MLA Susie Dillon, Dr. Javier Salabarria, Medical Director Mental Health & Addictions, and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Prince Edward Island.
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PLEASE NOTE
PLEASE DO NOT CALL ANDREW BY NAME. PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT POLICE UNLESS ANDREW IS IN DISTRESS. MY PROFILE PAGE PROVIDES UPDATES THROUGHOUT THE DAY.
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MEDIA COVERAGE
The TORSTAR YORK REGION.COM story written by Kim Zarzour was published Saturday, August 26, 2023. The headline was, "GUT-WRENCHING NIGHTMARE": FROM P.E.I. TO TORONTO MOTHER SEARCHES TO HELP HER HOMELESS SON. This is the first part of a two part story.
Remarks from Kim Zauzaur, Torstar reporter.
"As a mom of three adult children, I can't imagine what this family is going through. A mom is always a mom, no matter how old their child is. It broke my heart to talk with Marlene about what it's like to watch your son lost and in pain. I hope this story opens your eyes, as it did mine." Part two is coming Wednesday, August 30, 2023. Thank you for reading.
What would you do if your grown child became seriously ill? Would you call a doctor, take him to hospital, get him help?
What if it he were mentally ill and that illness caused anosognosia — an inability to recognize he’s sick — and he refused help, disappeared, blended into the growing morass of homeless people living on our streets?
Here’s one family’s story, an example, some say, of how we are failing those with mental illness and those who care for them.
It is, she says, a parent’s "most gut-wrenching nightmare."
For 10 months, through tears and sleepless nights, Marlene Bryenton scours her computer for signs of her only son (whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons).
Some days, she barely takes time to eat, flipping from one community Facebook group to the next, as social media shares posts and pictures of a tall, slim man, unshaven, with dirty blond hair, hands in pockets, eyes downcast.
Her 39-year-old son was a father, husband, homeowner and assistant manager of a local bank in PEI, a National Youth Bowling champion, Sport PEI all-around athlete of the year, youth leader and deacon at his church until, she says, delusions and serious mental illness took hold five years ago, leaving him a shell of the gregarious self he used to be.
She is reassured to see reports of him alive, on street corners, huddled outside buildings, curled up on parkland and pavement and bank vestibules.
Sometimes, he’s holding a coffee or box of Fruit Loops, other times talking to himself, or shaking, or screaming.
In the same way she watched him, as a toddler learn to walk, and as a young man compete in marathons, she now monitors the many miles he walks day and night in another province thousands of miles away, through inclement weather on sidewalk-free highways, along 400-series ramps and into oncoming traffic.
Shortly after her son disappeared, Bryenton turned to local community groups and online petition to find him. Since then, she says, hundreds of caring people across southern Ontario have reached out with reports of sightings.
Paranoia causes him to steer clear of people, she says, and he won’t use shelters, food banks or social services, so she asks the growing army of social media Samaritans to send photos and help if they can — but leave any food or water a few feet away and not call him by name.
She asks for things she thinks he might need: a blanket, a raincoat, sneakers, size 13.
It warms her heart that people do help — people like Jordyn Lee who saw him after work near Yonge and Eglinton.
Polite and well-spoken, he asked her for three Pepsi minis. She ran into the dollar store, buying him that and a loaf of bread, peanut butter, spoons to spread it and water, too.
"He was so soft-spoken and kind of broke my heart," she recalls. "When I looked into his eyes, I just felt horrible for him. He just looked lost.
"If he was my child, I would hope there'd be people in this world who would help," she adds. "And Marlene's not giving up. It takes moms that don't give up for change to happen."
In early July, he was seen in Barrie; later, he made his way through York Region. He was spotted running in the pouring rain on Highway 11, heading toward Newmarket, then in the Vaughan area and eventually, Toronto.
These days, in the photos people send her, he looks gaunt. She fears he is malnourished and sleep-deprived. More than once, she has been told, he’s come close to being run over by a car.
She and husband Lloyd worry about winter, fearing he will be found in a snowbank, frozen to death.
Multiple times, Bryenton approached a justice of the peace trying to get a Form 2, which, under the Mental Health Act, enables police to take a person who poses a danger to self or others to a hospital psychiatrist for assessment.
It was, she says, their only hope.
They were able to get this help twice. He was admitted to two separate Toronto hospitals, but each time, he was released after 72 hours by the in-patient psychiatrist, even though his PEI doctor offered to help with a medical transfer, she says.
Immediately after his recent release, he was seen sleeping in a TD Bank corridor 15 km from the hospital wearing the same tattered, hole-riddled clothing he's been wearing throughout this journey. She wonders how any doctor can think this is his choice.
"I’m going to be 73 in September and I never dreamed my retirement would include having my son homeless on the streets of Toronto ... but I am a mama bear ... I will never give up.
"Mind you, I have had several very critical remarks on Facebook, saying cruel, cruel things, criticizing me for ‘cyber stalking’. They figure I’m infringing on his privacy. They don’t understand mental illness. Unless you walk in our shoes, you just do not understand.”
It's a complicated issue, this balancing of a patient’s right to freedom with the right to receive involuntary medical treatment when the illness blocks it.
In part two of this series, we’ll look at what’s at stake and possible solutions.
Meantime, Marlene and Lloyd continue their battle to save their son, on social media and through lobbying for legislative change, because, as they have discovered, they are not alone. Many families have contacted to her saying they’ve been there, faced the same roadblocks.
“The mental health system is broken and there’s an extreme lack of support for loved ones,” she says. “It seems the rights of the mentally ill person overshadow anything else. We’re left in the dark, left to pick up the pieces.”
Going public isn’t easy, Bryenton says, but this is not just for her son; it's for all the lost souls on the streets.
She hopes to shine light on what it’s like to help a loved one with serious mental illness and, she hopes, “the next time people see a panhandler, they won’t look at them with disgust and disdain, but wonder, ‘what’s the background of this person? What happened to them?,’ and maybe, not just turn away.”
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Charlottetown CBC reporter, Jessica Doria-Brown, interviewed me recently.
A Toronto Star reporter contacted me. I will hear from them soon.
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MARVIN ROSS BLOG
A blog was written by Marvin Ross entitled, WHY ONTARIO'S MENTAL HEALTH ACT IS DEFICIENT - THE TALE OF A HOMELESS MAN WHO SHOULDN'T BE HOMELESS. Here is the link: https://dawsonross.wordpress.com/
https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/.../appi.ajp.2013.12111439 )
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ANDREW'S ANGEL TEAM
I have a team of very gifted individuals who are guiding, encouraging and supporting me daily. The list is extensive.
In particular, I wish to thank Maureen Trask, Advocate for Missing Persons. Maureen's son, Daniel, went missing and unfortunately was discovered deceased. Maureen facilitates a Peer Support Group for Missing Persons. I am a member of that group.
Maureen also successfully lobbied for the Ontario Missing Persons Act with the assistance of MPP Catherine Fife. Maureen has been working with me for five months providing guidance and assistance. I can't thank her enough for her kindness shown to our family."
Also, I wish to thank Kerry McLane, volunteer investigator with the PLEASE BRING ME HOME ORGANIZATION. Kerry helped search for Andrew in Ontario. In addition, Kerry suggested I start the PLEASE BRING ANDREW BRYENTON HOME TO P.E.I. PETITION.
A new gentleman has joined Andrew's Angels Team. He is the TWITTER KING. He has been sending Twitter messages. He reported the following: There have been 8992 Twitter views in one day on the Globe and Mail story.
I am a MAMA BEAR and I will protect our son! Furthermore, I WILL NEVER GIVE UP TRYING TO SAVE OUR SON'S LIFE!