Aging Shepody Healing Centre to get major upgrade
Mental health centre at Dorchester prison could become a state-of-the art psychiatric service, minister says
The head psychiatrist at the Shepody Healing Centre for prisoners at Dorchester Penitentiary describes it as small, outdated and jammed with prisoners who have a wide range of mental-health problems.
"We are mixing here patients that are suffering from acute psychotic states, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, severe personality disorders that are very impulsive, who can be violent at times, " said Dr. Louis Theriault.
"And you can have another patient on the other side of the table who's very, very anxious. They're cramped together."
Theriault was speaking Friday at the federal announcement of plans to either renovate the health centre or replace it entirely.
Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Dorchester would be the perfect place for a state-of-the-art prison psychiatric centre.
A working group will investigate the options for the 53-bed centre, he said.
"One of the advantages of setting up a national centre of excellence here in Dorchester, with a modern renewed psychiatric treatment facility, is we can offer the services bilingually," said the New Brunswick MP, who made the announcement on behalf of Ralph Goodale, the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness.
"We have an indigenous population within Atlantic Canada that requires many of these services. We think we have access to some of the health-care professionals 30 minutes away in Moncton, with two large hospitals that operate there."
Theriault said the centre isn't set up properly because it's so small. It has only one interview room and no adequate common rooms for prisoners.
"They have to share a very tiny common space, and we have two rooms to isolate patients who would be extremely agitated," he said.
"But it's so small that if they're very agitated, it does upset the whole unit, and does not allow other patients to have proper care."
Dorchester Penitentiary, which opened in 1880, is the second oldest federal prison in Canada.
Fighting over lone TV
Julie Bédard, Shepody's executive director and a member of the working group, said the centre is showing its age.
"If you are visiting Shepody, our nursing station and our officers' station is all a small space as well, where there's numerous people working all together, trying to respond to different situations," Bédard said.
In the small common area, 20 inmates might have to fight over use of a single television, she said, with the winner usually the one most technically adept.
"It seems like a very small detail, but for inmates suffering and patients suffering from mental health disorder … having different access in the larger centre will contribute to their well-being."
In April 2015, round-the-clock service at Shepody was in danger of being cut.
But on Friday, LeBlanc said staff and services need to be expanded.
"This facility has for many years been inadequate," he said. "As Dr. Theriault said, we have health-care professionals, correctional officers and support personnel working and treating people in circumstances that are far from ideal.
"So every month that that continues is one month too many."
Bédard said the working group will visit other centres as part of its groundwork.
When the group delivers its interim report, the government will consider the suggestions and financing options for the next budget cycle, LeBlanc said.