| Eighteen months ago Health
Minister Elizabeth Witmer promised not to close any more psychiatric beds until community
supports were in place and evaluated. OPSEU is holding her to her promise, with a fight
to keep the province’s 11 psychiatric hospitals open.
The government has announced plans to close six of the hospitals and divest another
four to save money.
It’s a plan that has OPSEU and the leaders of its "psych hospital"
locals worried. Over the last 20 years the union has researched psychiatric care, along
the way producing two books on the subject.
The vulnerable people served by the psychiatric hospitals need appropriate treatment
and have a right to dignity. Overcrowded rooming houses, jails, and the streets are no
substitute for care in a supportive environment.
North Bay is home to one of the four hospitals earmarked for divestment. Local 636
president Tony Morabito questions the future for its 300 patients.
"These patients are going to be abandoned," he said.
"We care for the patients. Yes, we want to save our jobs, but we’ve worked
with our patients. We know in our hearts that without our services they’re not going
to survive out there. Where are they going to go? Who are they going to turn to? It’s
very disheartening."
In Brockville, the hospital’s forensic beds (for patients judged unable to stand
trial because of mental disorders) are being divested to the Royal Ottawa Hospital. The
beds will remain on site but who will staff those beds remains a mystery.
The management at Royal Ottawa Hospital has to this point refused to meet with
officials from OPSEU Local 439 to discuss staffing. The rest of the patients from
Brockville Psychiatric Hospital will be moved into "community programs."
Staffing of mental health treatment beds in the area Correctional facilities is a big
concern. Correctional facilities in Brockville, Cornwall, Rideau and Pembroke that are
slated for closure will be replaced by a new super jail now under construction in
Brockville.
The staff for the new super jail will first come from the aforementioned facilities but
who will provide care for the 100 mental health treatment beds within that system?
Correctional officers, judges and the government have all said that corrections staff
aren’t qualified to deal with psychiatric cases.
Local 439 president Hugh Adams says there’s only one logical choice.
"We’re the ones who have dealt with mental health care." And if the new
super jail turns out to be a private operation, the staff will be even less qualified.
"For the sake of the patients, we’ve got to fight to continue to serve
them."
Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital is renowned as a world Centre for Excellence, treating
3,000 outpatients annually. The government plans to close its 250 beds and transfer the
patients to a new 124-bed unit at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
If there are more than 124 patients at any time, they will be sent to boarding houses
in the community. "Boarding houses don’t have the staff to help psychiatric
patients make it through and live a good life in the community," said Local 203
president Marjorie Martin.
"Closing HPH will create more homelessness, as people suffering from serious
mental illness are pushed out onto uncaring streets."
The government has said it will invest $15 million in community support services but
Martin says that’s not enough. "The government’s own advisory committee on
mental health estimates that at least $400 million is needed in start-up funding for
community support services before more beds are closed." |
