Consulting psychiatrist never met teen inmate; prescribed meds by phone

TORONTO – A psychiatrist is testifying at the Toronto inquest into the death of Ashley Smith that she prescribed medication to the disturbed teen by phone, but never met her.

Dr. Michelle Roy also says the medical file she received when Smith was moved to the Joliette prison in Montreal in July 2007 contained “very little information.”

She says there was not even a reference that Smith had been in a nearby psychiatric institution before being moved to the prison.

Roy says it was routine to consult or prescribe medication by telephone, especially in emergencies.

She says she relied on the prison nurse to accurately convey the situation.

Smith, of Moncton, N.B., was 19 when she choked herself to death in her segregation cell in Kitchener, Ont., in October 2007.