New, more secure Waterford unit needed: managers

Administrators of a psychiatric hospital in St. John's want government approval and funding to replace an overcrowded forensic unit from which three inmates have been able to escape.

The Waterford Hospital is primarily a psychiatric hospital, but is also home to a forensic unit meant to handle court-ordered treatment and assessments.

Three inmates who had been sent to the Waterford for court-ordered psychiatric assessments managed to escape from custody, raising questions about security at the institution.

Administrators said the solution is a new forensic unit that is not only more secure, but also better designed to handle the wide variety of people sent there for treatment and assessment.

"It would certainly give us a much better area to treat and assess and investigate the people on the forensic unit," said Tom Cantwell, a psychiatrist and the clinical chief of mental health with the Eastern Health regional authority, which manages the Waterford.

The proposal is before the provincial government. If approved, it would involve a multimillion-dollar renovation to the Waterford.

The forensic unit has become, effectively, a permanent home for those whom judges have declared not criminally responsible for their actions because of mental illness.

Cantwell said, however, that the unit designed for 17 people, but often filled with more because of court-ordered assessments also must deal with short-term visits, often involving people who have turned to crime to support their drug addictions.

"That's two groups mixing. It's quite disruptive for the people who are there a long time to have a turnover of new people coming in on such a frequent and such a regular basis," Cantwell said.

Colleen Simms, director of mental health programs with Eastern Health, said crowding and awkward design of the Y-shaped unit pose ongoing challenges.

"For anyone who's seen the inside of that forensic unit, I think it's a difficult place to stay for an extended period of time particularly because of the lack of space and the lack of private space," she said.

Unsettling feeling

The most recent of three security breaches including two inmates who hopped a fence and another who escaped from an escort happened last week.

Cantwell said the only real solution to problems with the unit, known as North 4B, is to close it permanently and relocate the patients to a newly crafted and more secure environment.

Geoff Chaulk, executive director of the Canadian Mental Health Association in Newfoundland and Labrador, said a tour of the unit last summer left an unsettling feeling.

"Why is it we're comfortable [with] housing people with very serious mental illnesses in buildings that are antiquated, run down and then very costly in terms of maintaining them from month to month, because you don't have something more modern to go to?" Chaulk said.