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Advocate banned from Riverview
Woman revealed that patient had received 130 electric shock treatments

Pamela Fayerman
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, April 23, 2002

A woman who has been an advocate for a Riverview Hospital patient over his numerous and ongoing electric shock treatments has been banned from the hospital and ordered not to have any contact with him.

Lawyers representing the hospital sent the letter to Julie Butler, advising her that she and members of her organization, the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights, would “no longer enjoy visiting privileges.”

Butler’s involvement with 71-year-old long-time Riverview patient, Michael Dennis Matthews, was featured in The Vancouver Sun last week. Matthews has received at least 130 electroconvulsive shock treatments (ECT) in the past three years and Butler has been trying to get psychiatrists there to stop giving them to him.

While the Public Trustee of B.C. has recently stepped into the fray to make inquiries about the appropriateness of the numerous treatments, Butler’s access is being restricted.

“On behalf of the director of Riverview, we must advise you that you will not be permitted to enter the Valleyview pavilion at Riverview Hospital, nor to have any further contact with Mr. Matthews,” the letter to Butler states.

Butler, who has been visiting Matthews weekly for several months, was apparently his only visitor. On a recent visit, he kissed her hand and hugged her when asked by a reporter how much he enjoys her company.

The hospital maintains that he didn’t even recall who she was when shown a picture of her. Butler’s response is that either the hospital is being disingenuous or Matthews’ memory has been so impaired by the ECT that he can’t recall faces in photos.

Matthews has apparently been confined to Riverview for 39 years. It is not known why he is there or the specifics of his mental illness.

Psychiatrists are delivering ECT to Matthews on an involuntary consent basis.

Hospital officials have maintained that Matthews isn’t sufficiently mentally competent to give consent to his ECT and the Public Trustee’s office said last week it does not legally recognize a consent form Matthews signed.

Jay Chalke, Public Guardian and Trustee of B.C., said information released to the public would amount to an invasion of patient privacy if based on an invalid consent form.

The form was used by Butler to access medical billings records detailing at least 130 electroconvulsive treatments administered by a handful of psychiatrists in the past three years.

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