Toronto Star News, Thursday, February 3, 2005, p. A04 Randy Mogridge's legacy is more staff, security Jim Wilkes Increased staffing, security and training have been ordered at the Oakville institution where Randy Mogridge wandered away last fall and drowned in a nearby creek. The measures follow recommendations from two reports released at Queen's Park yesterday that found shortcomings at Oaklands Regional Centre, a residence for intellectually challenged adults. Community and Social Services Minister Sandra Pupatello ordered the reviews in November after the death of Mogridge, 46, who wandered from the institution on Oct. 24 last year and was found drowned after two weeks of searches - and the disappearance of another resident a few weeks later. A coroner's panel is also probing the deaths of 10 residents at the provincially run facility between 2000 and last November. Pupatello said the ministry has spent about $1 million on upgrades and new staff at Oaklands. Additional measures will be completed in coming weeks and months, she said. Dean Mogridge called the recommendations pretty good steps. But he said a separate report given to his family detailed how his brother had been locked in a time-out room for eight out of 16 hours on the day he disappeared. The private report revealed that Randy had wandered from the facility four times that day. Mogridge, 41, who lives near Hamilton, said he was angered to learn that Randy had been confined so long, particularly when regulations state residents can be kept in a time-out room no longer than 15 minutes at a time. "Especially when you take into account that my brother's only enjoyment in life was walking around, picking things up and putting them away," he said. "One time when he left (the day he disappeared) and was found by a support worker from one of other houses who brought him back, the worker who was supposed to be looking after him just took him and locked him back in the room. "They didn't treat him like a human being, in my opinion." When Randy, an autistic man who couldn't speak and suffered from epilepsy and bipolar disorder, wandered away for the last time, hundreds of people joined volunteer searches on foot and all-terrain vehicles for two weeks across residential neighbourhoods and rural woodlands. His body was recovered from Sixteen Mile Creek on Nov. 8. About two weeks later, a Halton police officer found another pajama-clad resident wandering a nearby street shortly before midnight. When he returned the resident to Oaklands, they hadn't yet reported him missing. Ontario Chief Coroner Barry McLellan has ordered an investigation of 10 deaths at Oaklands over the past five years. A report is expected by the end of March. He said his team of coroners and police officers will consider yesterday's recommendations but described them as part of an "operational review." "We're looking at the circumstances around the deaths of 10 residents," he said. A decision whether to order an inquest into any of the deaths will be based on his probe's findings, McLellan said. Sheila Masters, Oaklands executive director, said she welcomed yesterday's recommendations. "We're certainly committed to getting them all implemented," she said. A report by Gary Sandor, appointed by Pupatello in November to oversee Oaklands, concluded that the institution was run "without adequate staff coverage in a number of different areas of operation for the past few years." Masters said cutbacks affected how Oaklands operated. "It's a long history of financial constraints that affected Oaklands and lots of agencies in this sector," she said. "As costs have gone up, funding hasn't, so it results in everybody cutting back as much as they can." She said the hiring of new staff will be positive for residents and "will certainly enhance their quality of life and increase security." When asked if Oaklands would be closed down, Pupatello was non-committal. "It is too early to answer that question," she said. "They are not out of the woods yet." Pupatello said she couldn't be certain that Mogridge's disappearance could have been prevented, even with the new measures in place. "Will these changes that we are bringing in, would they have made a difference? They might, but none of us could say with certainty what could have happened."