Future of WorkSafe rehab centre up for review after total program suspension

The days of sending New Brunswick's injured workers to Grand Bay-Westfield for weeks-long stints of rehabilitation may have come to a quiet end.

All intensive programs have been suspended since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and future use of the 40,000-square-foot campus on the outskirts of Saint John has yet to be determined.

The WorkSafeNB board of directors is meeting in June.

WorkSafe's Rehabilitation Centre has not offered its traditional treatment model — six-to-eight-week programs — since March 2020, WorkSafeNB spokesperson Laragh Dooley wrote in an email to CBC News.

"Only a handful of clients" have been on site, she said, and only for single appointments.

A CBC request to speak to WorkSafeNB president and CEO Tim Petersen was declined.

Care moved to communities

Pre-pandemic, the rehab centre used to treat 400 to 600 people a year at a cost of millions — $6.8 million in 2020.

These clients were deemed the most complex cases, requiring up to eight weeks of multiple treatments and therapies.

As many as 66 staff provided pain management, brain injury treatment, psychological assistance, amputee rehabilitation and an opioid reduction program, to name just a few of the services on site.

Dooley said WorkSafe had to make significant changes to the delivery of services because of COVID.

With the help of technology and partnerships with local health-care providers, she said, workers have been getting treatment in their own communities.

"This approach has allowed them to stay closer to their families and support networks during their recovery, while still receiving high-quality care," she wrote.

CUPE said its unionized workforce in Grand Bay, which used to include physiotherapists, has been reduced to 15 members — mostly part-time janitorial staff.

"It's been a slow death by a thousand cuts," said CUPE spokesperson Simon Ouellette. "And while this is happening, we're not creating a public-sector equivalent on the other side."

Complaints and concerns

WorkSafe said the centre is "world class" and that its three-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities is the global gold standard.

But a 2018 ministerial task force noted a consistent theme from injured workers who were treated there.

"These injured workers experienced language barriers, lack of reasonable accommodations, and social stressors relating to dislocation from their families and communities," the task force report said.

The centralized model, which may have made sense when the centre opened in 1977, is now outdated, according to the injured workers' advisory committee.

Sponsored by WorkSafeNB and mandated to provide suggestions on behalf of injured workers, the committee says it's a hardship to make workers travel far from home, especially if they live in the northern part of the province.

"You mend better around your family," said committee member Pamela Baker.

'It should be shut down'

Tom Barron, an advocate for injured workers for more than a decade, said he's met with many families who were deeply troubled by what happened at the Grand Bay centre.

Some believed their loved ones were were so demoralized and isolated, they were pushed to self-harm.

"We recommended, based on the evidence we gathered for the David Alward government, that the rehab be shut down, just completely shut down," said Barron, referring to a report he prepared in 2013.

Barron said he's convinced that didn't happen because it wouldn't fly politically.

"Every politician wants a rehab centre in their backyard," he said.

A CBC request to speak to Labour Minister Trevor Holder was turned down, but minutes from the February WorkSafe board meeting indicate he has addressed the issue.

"While discussing modernization of WorkSafeNB, the Minister requested we be mindful of the legacy of WorkSafeNB's Rehabilitation Centre in the community as we explore new ways of doing business," said the minutes, posted online.

"The Acting President and CEO advised that discussions are ongoing with the mayor of Grand Bay-Westfield regarding their interest in using parts of the facility and that WorkSafeNB recognizes and appreciates the role of the building in the community and that we also value the people that work at the Rehabilitation Centre."

Call for privatization

It's not yet clear how or whether privatization might fit into New Brunswick's workers' rehab reform.

That option was recommended in 2017 by the Office of the Comptroller, an internal provincial government office that monitors spending.

At that time, WorkSafe was under pressure to cut costs and reduce upward pressure on premiums paid by employers.

The centre treated only six per cent of workers injured on the job in 2015 at a cost of $7.8 million, said a July 2017 PowerPoint presentation obtained by CBC News.

The report went on to say, that's a "significant amount of resources to service a small population of injured workers," and almost half of those treated there do not return to work.