{"id":4424,"date":"2025-10-30T01:20:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T04:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/30\/ndp-calls-for-accountability-after-death-of-senior-who-wandered-away-from-saskatoon-care-home\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T01:20:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T04:20:33","slug":"ndp-calls-for-accountability-after-death-of-senior-who-wandered-away-from-saskatoon-care-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/30\/ndp-calls-for-accountability-after-death-of-senior-who-wandered-away-from-saskatoon-care-home\/","title":{"rendered":"NDP calls for accountability after death of senior who wandered away from Saskatoon care home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>SaskatchewanThe Saskatchewan NDP is calling for an investigation and accountability after an 86-year-old man with Alzheimer\u2019s wandered out of a Saskatoon care home unnoticed and died days later.Family says they\u2019re still waiting for answers from Sask. Health AuthorityAishwarya Dudha  \u00b7 CBC News  \u00b7 Posted: Oct 29, 2025 8:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesSaskatchewan NDP deputy leader Vicki Mowat, left, and Bailie Smith speak at a news conference Wednesday. Smith\u2019s grandfather William Cone, who had Alzheimer\u2019s, died after wandering away from a care home in Saskatoon. (CBC News)The Saskatchewan NDP is calling for an investigation and accountability after an 86-year-old man with Alzheimer\u2019s wandered out of a Saskatoon care home unnoticed and died days later.\u201cThe Saskatchewan Health Authority needs to explain how this was allowed to happen. We\u2019ve seen too many similar tragedies like this in our province in just the last few years,\u201d NDP deputy leader Vicki Mowat said at a news conference on Wednesday.The incident raises questions about lax regulations and lack of oversight in government-run care homes, Mowat said.William Cone was wearing slippers and using a walker when he fell and broke his hip after wandering away from the Preston Special Care Home, which is operated by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA), on Oct. 11. His family thinks he got out through a normally locked door that was propped open during renovations. Cone died in hospital on Oct. 20.Mowat was accompanied at the news conference by Bailie Smith, Cone\u2019s granddaughter.\u201cWe put him in the care of the Saskatchewan Health Authority, thinking that that was the right move, and it blew our lives up,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe was known to wander \u2014 that was part of the reason why we had put him in there because my grandma was taking care of him alone.\u201dWilliam Cone, 86, died after walking out of a Saskatoon care home unnoticed. Cone, who had Alzheimer\u2019s, was placed in a care home by his family thinking he\u2019d be safer there.  (Submitted by Bailie Smith)The care home is operated by the SHA, which said in a statement on Monday that it had reached out to the family to discuss concerns around the death and is doing a formal review into the incident.However, Smith said at the news conference that the SHA has not contacted the family.\u201cSHA has not reached out to us at all. I know they said they did but they have not reached out to us,\u201d she said.Smith said they tried to contact the provincial ombudsman but kept hitting roadblocks.NDP says incident part of larger patternMowat pointed to the death in February of a 96-year-old man who she said was found frozen to death after he wandered out of a care home in Saskatoon. The NDP has also highlighted the case of a 91-year-old who died 13 days after being admitted to a care home, alleging lack of oversight and funding.\u201cWe\u2019ve seen too many similar tragedies like this in our province in just the last few years,\u201d Mowat said.Mowat said the province needs better standards and regulations for care homes\u201cWe hear from health-care workers who haven\u2019t had a raise in three years, who are overworked, understaffed, underpaid.\u2026 We no longer have minimum care standards in our long-term care facilities. Their guidelines, they\u2019re not required to be followed,\u201d she said.WATCH | Family says tragedy could have been prevented:Family of man who died after leaving care home undetected say tragedy could have been preventedWilliam Cone died after walking out of Preston Special Care Home in Saskatoon unnoticed. The 86-year-old had Alzheimer\u2019s and was placed in a care home by his family, who thought he\u2019d be safer there.Smith said the family is still waiting for answers as they\u2019re processing their loss.\u201cI don\u2019t know that we\u2019ve really even had time to grieve properly just because of how it happened,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re more wanting to make sure this doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201dShe\u2019s calling for safety changes, such as mandatory cameras, alarms or patient bracelets.Lori Carr is the minister of mental health and addictions, seniors and rural and remote health. She responded to the incident at the legislature on Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s my understanding that the SHA is doing an inquiry on what happened, and so we\u2019ll look forward to those results,\u201d she said. \u201cThey haven\u2019t started the investigation yet, so as soon as they they get that information we\u2019ll be made aware of what happens.\u201d  ABOUT THE AUTHORAishwarya Dudha is a reporter for CBC Saskatchewan based in Saskatoon. She specializes in immigration, justice and cultural issues and elevating voices of vulnerable people. She has previously worked for CBC News Network and Global News.  You can email her at aishwarya.dudha@cbc.ca <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SaskatchewanThe Saskatchewan NDP is calling for an investigation and accountability after an 86-year-old man with Alzheimer\u2019s wandered out of a Saskatoon care home unnoticed and died days later.Family says they\u2019re still waiting for answers from Sask. Health AuthorityAishwarya Dudha \u00b7 CBC News \u00b7 Posted: Oct 29, 2025 8:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,123,1],"tags":[116,122],"class_list":["post-4424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-saskatchewan","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous","tag-saskatchewan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}