Guelph General Hospital plans 'safe rooms' for patients in crisis

The front entrance to Guelph General Hospital is pictured on Monday, Aug. 17, 2015. (Allison Tanner / CTV Kitchener)

Currently, patients entering the emergency room at Guelph General Hospital in significant psychiatric distress aren’t given dedicated space for assessment.

That may soon change, as hospital officials are in discussions about creating ‘safe rooms’ where these patients can be taken.

“The safe rooms are an area where we’d have the ability to provide more private, dignified care for patients,” Eileen Bain, the hospital’s vice-president of patient services, said in an interview.

“It offers us an opportunity to care for those patients in a better physical space.”

In total, hospital officials want to find space for three such rooms in the emergency department.

Although the timing of the plan may bring to mind the situation of Brandon Duncan – who was shot dead by police inside the emergency department in May, in an incident that remains under investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit – Bain says the safe rooms have been something worked toward for nearly a year.

“We recognize that our ability to care for patients who present with either a psych emergency or other issues requiring more seclusion is compromised,” she said.

An overall review of the hospital’s practices around mental health was already underway at the time of the shooting, and has been expedited since then.

One measure already put into place has been the hiring of more security personnel.

Sam Asselstine is the area manager for G4S Secure Solutions. He says his company has been welcomed into the hospital.

He says employees of G4S are given training not just on basic security procedures, but also on specific situations unique to hospitals.

“There’s a lot of time spent on … indicators of crisis, both verbal and non-verbal,” he said.

“We spend a lot of time talking about precipitating factors of crisis – what are the things that can send an otherwise normal-functioning individual right into the throes of crisis, and then how do we best deal with that individual?”