The Ottawa Hospital’s emergency psych units ‘softened’ after suicide
The Ottawa Hospital has “softened” the look of its emergency psychiatric unit in response to a year-long campaign by the grieving parents of a mentally ill wedding photographer who feared its windowless rooms.
Ryan Parent, 37, suffered from depression and anxiety. He took his life at home in November 2017.
Five months before he died, Parent spent 56 hours in the psychiatric emergency services (PES) unit at the Civic campus while waiting for a bed to open in the psychiatric ward.
Ellen Parent said her son developed a deep fear of the unit — he likened its rooms to jail cells — which she believes deterred him from seeking more help when his mental health deteriorated.
After Ryan’s suicide, Ellen and her husband, Ken, launched a determined campaign to address the situation.
“When I saw what it had done to him, I swore that I didn’t want to see another person go through that again,” she said. “Ryan passed away and I thought, ‘I’m not going to just let this go. It’s not right.’”
The Parents met with hospital managers, and together they worked out a series of compromises. Parent, who originally wanted to see the PES unit closed, conceded that it’s required as a safe, calm place for patients to be assessed before receiving a mental health referral.
Hospital officials, after consulting with patient and family advisory groups, also conceded they could take steps to make the rooms more inviting.
The hospital recently installed full-spectrum lighting to simulate outdoor light, and resurfaced the unit’s metal toilets with a powder coating to make them less institutional. The rooms have been painted a lighter colour, and one wall in each is to have a pastel shade.
The hospital has also committed to adding the Discovery Channel to Plexiglas-protected televisions in the rooms, and to installing wall murals to soften the unit’s atmosphere.
When the renovations are complete, patients will also be able to communicate directly with a nurse through a security window, rather than by intercom.
Ellen Parent said she’s delighted with the modifications. “I feel blessed that future patients will experience a more compassionate and a more pleasing environment,” she said.
Heather Garnett, director of the mental health program at The Ottawa Hospital, thanked the Parent family for their feedback.
“This is why we establish patient and family advisory committees: to really help inform improvements to our care,” Garnett said.
Dr. Mark Kaluzienski, the deputy chief of psychiatry at the hospital, said the renovations have made the PES unit “lighter and brighter.”
Kaluzienski noted the PES unit was originally created in response to patient feedback. Previously, people who were having a mental health crisis were assessed in busy emergency departments, often in cubicles that offered little privacy or security.
“The concerns we heard at the time were that this was just noisy and somewhat destabilizing,” Kaluzienski said. “That’s why we created the psych emerg — to create that safe space that was de-stimulating that allowed people to calm down and have secure, private conversations.”
During his lifetime, Ryan Parent was an accomplished wedding photographer, kick-boxer, software developer, swing dancer and disability advocate.
He studied economics at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, where he helped establish programs for the disabled. After graduation, Parent launched a moving company called Jesus Moving. He was by then an active member of the Nepean Baptist Church.
Parent believed in a hands-on form of Christianity, and often took homeless people to dinner, prayed with them and washed their feet.
After teaching himself photography, Parent launched himself in the wedding business, and later developed a software company, Vidrack, that marketed a video recording platform.
In addition to advocating for improvements to the PES unit, the Parents have also helped raise money for mental health research. A golf tournament named in Ryan Parent’s honour and hosted by Rideau View Golf Club last year raised more than $90,000 for suicide prevention research.