FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December
20, 2005
Open more
psychiatric assessment beds, OPSEU tells province
The McGuinty government isn’t
doing enough to comply with a court ruling and ensure mentally
ill people accused of a crime get timely psychiatric
assessments, says the union representing mental health workers
in Ontario.
“The volume of court-ordered
assessments seems to be greater than the number of beds
available,” said Leah Casselman, president of the Ontario
Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). “The government has no
choice but to open more beds.”
Hospitals in southern and
eastern Ontario that do assessments are full or even
over-capacity on a regular basis and have waiting lists. The
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto has closed
to admissions for court-ordered assessments at least four
times in the past few months.
Ontario Superior Court Justice
Robert Desmarais ruled in November 2004 that it was illegal
and unconstitutional to jail the mentally ill accused of a
crime until beds in hospital forensic units were available.
The judge imposed a May 10 deadline for the province to fix
the problem.
The province announced $27.5
million in funding for community services and set up a bed
registry to identify bed vacancies among the nine hospitals in
Ontario that do forensic assessments.
Judges are responding to the
court ruling by ordering accused persons “forthwith” to a
hospital for assessment. This is putting added pressure on the
hospitals’ forensic units and staff.
“The situation is only going to
get worse if the government doesn’t act now,” said Casselman.
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For further information: Megan
Park, (416) 443- 8888 ext. 8207
