Centre for Addiction and Mental Health fined $80K for failing to protect nurses
'We know that staff are scared coming into work every day,' says nurses' representative
Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) has been fined $80,000 for failing to protect two of its staff, after a nurse suffered a fractured eye socket, contusions to the face and head and injuries to her wrist and back when a patient repeatedly kicked her in the head.
The incident happened while she was conducting her rounds at CAMH one night in January 2014.
The nurse couldn't activate the personal alarm system she's required to wear; a colleague helped her escape. Both are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and neither has been back to work.
On Monday CAMH pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to protect two of its workers, laid under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
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The Ontario Nurses' Association says what the two staff members suffered is not uncommon.
"We should be able to go to work and go back home the same way we looked when we walked into work," says Danielle Latulippe-Larmand, president of the bargaining unit representing the Ontario Nurses' Association at CAMH.
"It's the only place I know of that you can walk into work looking one way and walking out looking another at the end of your shift."
'We think that our lives are worth it'
It isn't the first time that CAMH has faced consequences for failing to protect its employees. In 2009 the centre was fined $70,000 after nurses were attacked by patients in two separate incidents.
CAMH's chief of nursing and professional practice, Dr. Rani Srivastava, told CBC News in a written statement that "We deeply regret that we failed to meet our obligations for workplace safety ... We continuously strive to maintain an environment that is safe for our staff, as well as safe and therapeutic for our patients."
But the nurses say that's not good enough.
"We want CAMH to take a proactive, positive approach when dealing with violent situations," said Nancy Pridham, president of the OPSEU bargaining unit at CAMH, adding that they have asked CAMH to talk to other facilities that have lower rates of these types of incidents about the preventative policies they have implemented.
The unions say their nurses won't feel any safer at work until CAMH invites them to the table to hammer out a collaborative safety plan.
The nurses recognize that implementing additional safety measures is expensive, Pridham says.
"We think the money is worth it. We think that our lives are worth it. We think that coming to work every day as health care professionals and getting to go home at the end of the day intact is very, very important."
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The psychological effects caused by these incidents are often much harder to heal than physical injuries, Pridham says.
"They call us. They tell us they had to pull over at the side of the road and pull themselves together before they could come into work because they witnessed an assault the day before, they saw one of their colleagues be assaulted earlier … We know that staff are hurting, we know that staff are scared coming into work every day."