Public inquiry into WorkSafeNB rehab centre needed, family says

The family of an injured worker who committed suicide seven months after being discharged from the Workers' Rehabilitation Centre in Grand Bay-Westfield is calling for a public inquiry into how WorkSafeNB manages mental illness.

"If they don't go into [the claims process] with a mental disorder, they are coming out of it with a mental disorder," says Rachel McKinnon, who found the body of her hanged father in the basement of his home.

McKinnon says 51-year-old Reginald Leblanc was a happy, kind, productive man until he was demoralized by WorkSafeNB and his treatment at the Workers' Rehabilitation Centre (WRC).   

Leblanc's widow was left to grieve while being denied survivor benefits.   

But that decision was overturned three months ago, when the Workers Compensation Tribunal reviewed the case and awarded Sandra Leblanc full compensation.  

"That decision says to me that they've admitted they were responsible, in part, for his death," says Leblanc, who was married to her husband for 36 years.

The appeals tribunal concluded that psychiatric treatment for Leblanc came too late during his physical injury treatment plan and rehabilitation.

"In fact, he was only admitted to a psychiatric unit on the eve of his suicide," says the report.

Decision a huge leap, advocate says

Tom Barron, a workers’ advocate, calls the decision explosive and a huge leap forward for injured workers.

He says it will force WorkSafeNB, employers, and the psychiatric community to recognize the ingredients that cause an individual to take drastic steps.

The tribunal report said Leblanc had no known physical or mental illnesses prior to the physical injuries he suffered at work.

Leblanc said her late husband worked for the Department of Transportation for 22 years. He was a welder and active in the union.

When Leblanc was sent to the workers' rehabilitation centre for a six-week stint, it was a long journey from his home east of Richibucto.

Sandra Leblanc also travelled to Saint John so she wouldn't be far away.

She said her late husband lost 14 kilograms while attending the rehabilitation centre.

She said he was ordered to dig deep into his psyche by filling out a personal workbook that asked him intimate questions about his relationships and his past.  

Recently, McKinnon went combing through the pages, translating the answers from Leblanc's hand-written entries in French. Some were embellished with coloured pencil drawings by her dad.

"They get him to do all this work and this soul-searching," says McKinnnon.

"They open up this can of worms, as we call it, but never give him the tools to deal with all those brought-up emotions that he had."

The tribunal report observed that Leblanc did not receive formal psychiatric assessment and treatment even though he was prescribed a significant amount of psychiatric drugs, including Zyprexa, Rivotril, Naproxen, Hytrin, Seroquel and Zolof "with no strict psychiatric supervision."

'Nothing meant anything to him anymore'

After Leblanc was discharged in April 2010, his family said he started to experience psychotic episodes. 

McKinnon said it was heart-breaking to watch her father detach himself from the things he loved.

"He would drive to my sister's driveway and sit in his truck and the grandkids would see him and then he would back out and leave," she says.  

"Nothing meant anything to him anymore."

According to the tribunal report, Leblanc was discharged from hospital Nov. 10, 2010, after recovering from a brief psychosis episode. 

On Nov. 24, McKinnon became alarmed when her father wouldn't answer his phone.

That evening, she drove alone to the wooded acreage in Bedec where her parents had purchased a dream home just the year before.

She described the silence in the house as ear-piercing.

Finding him was almost a relief, she says.

"I think it was the first time in months that I had seen him so peaceful," she recalled.

But the years that followed brought unrelieved grief.  

"We felt as if he'd been murdered," says Sandra Leblanc.  

"It just seemed like they set him up to fail."

"He was pushed to his limit, by the hands of other people," says McKinnon. 

Government review launched

Last April, the provincial government announced it would conduct a three-year, multi-stage review of the province's workers' compensation legislation.

Barron says three review panel members, Brian Bruce, Ellen Barry and Douglas Mah have now heard some highly emotional presentations by injured workers. 

Barron collected some of the comments into a report that he then submitted to the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour.

Barron says it all points to why the WRC should be dismantled.

According to the report, injured workers told the panel, it was psychologically harmful to be forced to leave friends and family for as long as eight weeks to attend the facility. 

Some described the centre as a prison-like environment that fostered feelings of isolation and fear.

"Most express a sense of feeling 'emotionally shackled,’” says the report. 

"They are greeted at the door by a security guard who locks the doors behind them while they are slowly walking through the facility in pain. Why are the doors locked?"

Over-prescription complaints

Injured workers also complained about the over-prescription of opiate painkillers, as a crutch to put clients back into the workforce before they're physically ready. 

"I can tell you, I've been working with injured workers almost 40 years and I was traumatized by the bringing together of all those stories," says Barron.  

Barron says he was advised this week, that on average, five injured workers a year committed suicide. 

He said that information was given to him by Louise Tardif, the workers advocate for the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour. 

A CBC News email request to Tardif was not returned.

Barron says he has surveyed hundreds of injured workers who have come through his office in the past 15 years. 

He says 89 per cent of them have contemplated suicide. 

In 2007, the New Brunswick's Office of Workers Advocates said all six advocates, who together handled about 300 appeals annually, all said they had clients who had committed suicide while on a claim. 

Leblanc says she hopes her story will create a huge response. 

And she says she hopes the tribunal's decision in her favour will help her family find closure. 

"I feel you don't get the support from people when it's a suicide," she says.

"In their minds they're saying he was a coward or he was selfish to do that or weak and that's not what Reg was like."