A five-person jury has provided a list of 17 recommendations to improve care for First Nations youth suffering mental health crises after a coroner’s inquest into the death of a Williams Lake teen.
The week prior to his death in June of 2014, 18-year-old Jacob Setah had been committed involuntarily at Royal Inland Hospital’s psychiatric ward, One South, under the Mental Health Act.
During the inquest in April jurors heard Setah escaped from the ward by smashing through a window and fled to a three-storey parkade.
When police arrived he was standing on the top of a vehicle.
After 40 minutes of failed negotiations, RCMP Const. Nathan Poyzer deployed a Taser on Setah, but the weapon had no effect and Setah then vaulted over the ledge and to his death.
Setah also spent time living at Yunesit’in (Stone) First Nation with his father when he wasn’t living with his mother in Williams Lake.
Yunesit’in Chief Russell Myers Ross said on the last day of the inquiry his community submitted a list of recommendations to the jury for consideration.
“Out of that long list almost all of our recommendations were taken into consideration,” Myers Ross said.