Workers call for action over spike in attacks at hospital
Two unions that represent workers at Coquitlam’s Forensic Psychiatric Hospital are sounding the alarm over a recent spike in assaults, blaming management for a “systemic failure” to respond.
The B.C. Government and Service Employees Union said that there have been 21 staff injuries committed by patients to its members alone, between May and August of this year.
“The management in this facility are treating this particular forensic hospital as an experiment, on treating patients without the presence of security and without the protections that we consider essential,” said Paul Finch, BCGEU’s treasurer.
The B.C. Nurses’ Union said three violent assaults against their members have happened this month.
The group said on Aug. 23 that a nurse was hospitalized after being “assaulted with multiple blows to the head,” causing bruises and psychological trauma. Another incident resulted in a concussion, and the third assault sent a nurse to the emergency room.
In April, a health-care worker represented by the BCGEU was strangled to the point of unconsciousness. The RCMP was called in for assistance.
According to Finch, the management of the facility were at first not willing to report that incident to WorkSafeBC.
“It seems like they don’t care,” Finch said.
The union has now sent their concerns to B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix in the hopes of fasttracking a response.
In 2016, Postmedia News reported that the psychiatric-services commission was fined $171,000 because of dangerous conditions.
In the last five years 57 safety orders were filed, showing “a chronic pattern of the employer not responding,” Finch added.
The Provincial Health Services Authority said they don’t have safety officers in the units at all times, because they believe it can lead to patients becoming anxious and possibly more aggressive.
“We’ve been working with an expert to invest even further in staff training and safety, and solidify a therapeutic and relational security approach across the hospital, which is designed to meet the unique needs of staff who work with highrisk patients,” said Connie Coniglio, chief operating officer at the B.C. Mental Health and Substance Use Services, in a statement.
The statement also added that the PHSA has recently taken steps to increase staff safety at the facility.
The nurses union, however, disagreed with both their approach and the claim of greater safety.
“We’re stunned and appalled that they are taking that position,” said Adriane Gear, vice-president of the union. “Nurses want to develop and have therapeutic relationships with their patients, (but) a nurse being required to act as a security guard and a nurse? How does that provide a therapeutic environment?”
For example, B.C. is entering the third year of a new curriculum for kindergarten to Grade 9, and the first year of a new Grade 10 curriculum, but there’s still no co-ordinated and funded plan to get teachers new materials, said Hansman.
“We just don’t have current and up-to-date materials in our classrooms,” he said, adding some maps and materials still don’t identify Nunavut as its own territory after it separated from the Northwest Territories in 1999. “That’s why we continue to see parents fundraising.”
The BCTF will wrap all these issues into negotiations for a new contract, as its current deal is set to expire June 30, 2019. The union is pushing for wage increases, citing that a teacher near the Alberta border could make $22,000 more by crossing into that province, and that B.C.’s starting teacher wage is among the lowest in Canada.
“We continue to lose people simply because other provinces are able to pay more, especially starting wages,” said Hansman.
Fleming said he’s “optimistic” about the contract talks. The government has already managed to lock up some of the largest public sector unions into new deals.
Fleming is also considering major changes to B.C.’s education funding formula, which is currently done on a per-pupil basis.
Rural areas have argued it is unfair because it doesn’t take into account the importance of local schools in areas with smaller populations and can be the cause of school closures that force students to bus for hours to other schools.
It can also be harder to recruit new teachers to rural areas, but some of the 100 new teachertraining spaces the NDP is funding will be in northern B.C. through a partnership with UBC, which will ideally graduate students interested in working in remote areas, Fleming said.
The new NDP government has not yet proven to be the panacea for every educational concern. Teachers aren’t necessarily angry at that, said Hansman, but they are worried the NDP’s slow pace on some issues mirrors that of the previous Liberal administration.