At 8:00 AM PST I called the Halifax Hospital Psychiatric Unit and left a voicemail for Connie Wade. She returned my call ten minutes later.
Here are my notes from the call:
- Connie said she hadn’t received the voicemail I left for her on Friday, February 3rd, was out Monday and Tuesday, and had been “busy all morning” so hadn’t checked her email yet
- She basically read my entire email to her back to me over the phone and quickly addressed each issue, but was very placating (patronizing, really) and defensive and not invested at all; only partially reading, etc.
- she said she’d print the email and give it to Dr. Caliendo
- I asked her what her actual role was at the hospital, because it seemed like she was more of an administrator than a counselor; she told me she is not an administrator at all, but is a “psychiatric counselor”. Then she detailed what she does every day, which was a long list of administrative tasks. She did not mention providing psychiatric counseling to patients as one of her responsibilities at all.
- The call lasted about forty-five minutes
At 9:00 AM PST [name redacted] called me and asked if I would give him mom’s computer since she would likely not be using it any longer; He also said he hadn’t brought her any books yet. He told me he’d visited mom with [name redacted] and [name redacted], and that mom recognized [name redacted] but otherwise was unresponsive.
At 4:37 PM PST I called and managed to talk to mom for about five minutes. Almost immediately she started saying that she had to get off the phone, that she had to go to the bathroom. I was very sad and asked her if she even wanted to talk to me at all. She emphatically said, “Yes!” She said, “I want to talk to you!” and then — as far as I can tell — she placed the phone on the counter and walked away.
I waited a few minutes but it was clear she was gone, so I hung up.