colleague strung out, missing...

love and respect him unconditionally.

imo, he would be full of self-loathing at doing this to others and himself and is probably still as he would believe there was no point to going back to his success now.

Call the police.

Thanks for the update. It is always sad to read of someone suffering and alone.

@lagatta:

Similar to what Unionist said - except rather than calling, I would very strongly recommend going down to the local police station or precinct (or whatever they call the  police subdivisions in Montreal) and speak with the community liaison officer and ask for their assistance in filing a missing person's report. Try to avoid dealing with their "front desk" or whoever happens to be simply answering the phones that day...

I, unfortunately, have some experience with this - I living in a housing cooperative and one of our former members suffered from a stubborn and relatively severe mental illness and was prone to what are generally referred to as "psychotic breaks". One of the times she went "missing" I spent the longer part of an afternoon with the local community liaison officer exploring what options we at the co-op (not having the standing of family members) had in trying to ascertain her whereabouts. Be prepared to do a little educational instruction on the nature of your housing association or co-op (the police seem to think anyone who doesn't own their own residence is automatically in a standard landlord/tenant relationship) and make it clear that you are not there to safeguard the financial interests of the association, but out of concern for the individual involved (in the instance I was involved in, I seemed to manage to get it through to the officer that we were not worried about the housing fees involved, but rather we were concerned that she might lose her housing rights [right to occupancy and the subsidy that went with it] when a certain period of time had passed and we would be required to take steps to revoke her membership within the co-op). Also, alert your board or permanent staff that you will be talking to the police and that you will be informing them that there may be on record contact information that is protected by privacy laws -- in the Alberta situtation we are not allowed to volunteer them when filing a report, but our office can divulge them to police if they contact our office and officially request them -- the Quebec situation may be the same.

Having filed the report turned out for the best in situation I was in, our member was acting "strangely" in Vancouver and came into contact with the police, who informed her that the co-op was concerned and trying to find her -- the report had been shared and Calgary police were informed that she had been in contact with Vancouver police, and they (the Calgary force) in turn contacted us to let us know. They cannot force the person who has gone missing to get in contact you, but if they have the missing person's report they can relay some of the information they get to you.

I hope you find your missing member soon lagatta, it is very troublesome to be concerned about someone who has gone missing and to be told "you don't have standing" when you look for official help in finding them. One last bit of (totally unsolicited) advice, if he does suddenly come home, let him know what steps you took if the police become involved. I mention this in light, again, of my experience with the member I am referring to here in Calgary - in three separate instances I had to involve the police asking them to conduct what are called "welfare checks" where they come by and enter the premises to confirm that the person is in good health and not an immediate risk to themselves -- fortunately she could and did accept that we were concerned about her rather than trying to control her behaviour and after the explanation from me held no hard feelings for my having involved the authorities.

Again, hope this resolves for the best.

[ETA - lagatta, you posted your update while I was composing this, glad to hear you have received word about him]

Bagkitty's account is not only awesome, it is extremely useful in this case and in others.

I want to specify that this person is a colleague at a tenants' association (association des locataires) which I've belonged to for 25 years. I also live in a housing co-operative (thanks to my membership and paid and volunteer work in the tenants' association) and we have also had problems with a member who had severe mental problems; she could not get along with some others, one neighbour in particular. Fortunately we were able to find a more appropriate housing situation for her, as her behaviour was untenable but we couldn't throw her into the street either! She turned 65, and is in a public housing complex where there is someone who can assist her (and others) in such situations.

The colleague is not back at his own (small studio) apartment, and seems to be in remission, but of course we remain in a high state of concern. He had been working at the tenants' association through a job creation programme, and doing an utterly splendid job, both in helping other tenants in the neighbourhood in very difficult situations (lots of bedbugs now, for one thing) and in organising events for our membership. He coordinated our entire year's end supper, including the cooking, sourcing food, drink, a sound system and many other perks and essentials, getting speakers (and seeing that their speeches were SHORT) the cleanup etc.

But he just lost it one day - and vanished. For the moment there isn't much we can do, but I'll send bagkitty's detailed advice to another member who is fluent in English (to be honest I don't feel like translating it).

Thanks for your concern!

@lagatta

Please check your rabble mail, I sent you a message. Rather than making someone have to rummage through my posting above I have broken it down into 5 salient points in the message I just sent you. No problem with your sharing my post, just thought it would be easier if I broke out the important stuff in numbered form.

Thanks lagatta.