The Ottawa Citizen from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • 5

The Citizen, Ottawa, Friday, October 6, 1978, Page 5 9 Forensic unit may reopen I I i i ajrs-- 2 Dnin-ti jjinn-1 0. s. diate future of patients in the building. Before the fire, it looked like any other hospital ward. Doors opened off the wide corridor revealing two beds, chairs, a small table and beyond, a large window overlooking the By Wendy Warburton i Citizen staff writer Thursday night's fire Jwhich destroyed the entire interior of the Royal Otta-wa Hospital's forensic psychiatry unit may only have evacuated the ward temporarily.

Ron Power, director of public affairs for the hospital said this morning jmassive renovations may eventually re-open the gut-Jted floor. "There was no special jor particularly expensive 'equipment in there," he said. "Basically, it was Ijust a ward tables, chairs, beds and walls. I 'can perceive it being The roof is not 'significantly damaged." Power said a meeting be held later today determine the imme- Citizen photo routine to minimize the danger of escape. But, he added, a medium security unit is required to serve the needs of all inmates and ensure the safety of the community.

Fortunately, there were few escapes from the forensic unit. One man who walked away in 1976 was later convicted of robbery with violence, and a second man charged with indecently assaulting a five-year-old girl was recaptured four months after he left the ROH grounds last spring. According to ward nurse Margaret Skuce, most of the escapers were adolescents with a history of running away and very ill patients who didn't understand they weren't permitted to leave. System worked The low number of incidents supports Bradford's belief that the security system practised worked for the patients accepted. Only one elevator stopped at the floor and only one stairwell was kept readily open.

Both were in full view of the nursing station. But the main control on Dr. John Bradford holds session with staff members Action to establish a medium security forensic unit at the ROH has to date been slow in coming. Smith said he wrote a no response, letter to Timbrell in April A health official in Tor-asking about the minister's onto said Smith's letter progress has received could not be located. downtown it's OMAN'S of any assessments.

Other inmates require the kind of treatment they can get only in a hospital setting, he said. But authorities are reluctant to permit inmates to travel back and forth often as leaving the RDC presents a security risk to the community. Adolescents on the ward also caused problems for the hospital. There were usually about five adolescents remanded from family and juvenile court on the ward at any one time. And they were more often a source of concern to the unit's security than the adult patients, Bradford said.

He said the system was not secure enough to hold them and many tried to run away. Because of that, the ones who found their way to the forensic unit were usually the most disturbed. Their presence was a source of irritation to the adult patients, most of whom were not as severly psychologically disturbed. Efap fiTnrrr: downtown it's green lawns of the Royal Ottawa Hospital. But the patients that occupied the now-burned-out ward the forensic unit on the third floor of the Perley building are different.

They're at the hospital on a court order for a 30- or 60-day psychiatric evaluation after being charged with a criminal offence. At any one time, the unit was likely to hold a person accused of murder, several people charged with non-violent sex crimes, five or six adoles-cents charged with offences ranging from truancy or arson to attempted murder, and two or three persons who committed a crime while clearly mentally ill. There were no visible means of securing the forensic unit. The only concession to the kind of patients it served were shatter-proof windows and a firedoor that opened only when pushed with 120 pounds of pressure. There were no locks and no bars.

Unit chief Dr. John Bradford in an interview before Thursday's fire said there were precautions against escape, but the system was by no means foolproof. Source if concern The openness and inadequacy of the 13-bed ward became a source of public concern last March, when it was a learned that a 16-year-old boy charged with the murder of his two younger sisters had been released from the ROH two months earlier. He had been sent there as a term of probation after a knife attack on a neighbor. The incident highlighted what Bradford and former unit chief Dr.

Selwyn Smith had been saying for months the ROH needed a medium security forensic psychiatry unit for the assessment and treatment of dangerous offenders. Bradford said the ward had established a security the patients' movements was exerted through a sys- tern of privileges awarded for good behavior. If Bradford was concerned about a new arrival, he was confined to the ward with a nurse guarding him on a one-to-one basis 24 hours a day. If he co-operatea, he was permitted to leave the ward accompanied by a nurse. Later, if he continued to improve, he might have been allowed to roam the grounds with two or three, other patients and a nurse supervisor.

Bradford said the system, although very expensive, worked well, partly because the patients recognized that it was to their advantage to be at the hospital, and partly because Bradford picked and chose very carefully which remand cases he would accept on a full-time basis. Persons charged with In December 1976, the then forensic unit chief, Dr. Selwyn Smith, sent a proposal to the Ontario Ministry of Health urging that a 40-bed ward be built to house 20 adult and 20 adolescent patients. The proposed secured ward would include an area where patients could be isolated, have electronically locked doors, television surveillance at entrances and exits, a controlled elevator and its own separate medical equipment. Monetary restriants forced the hospital to reduce the number of patients to 30 and the proposal was sent to the Otta-wa-Carleton Regional Health Council for study.

In March, when the murder case blew up, Health Minister Dennis Timbrell promised to look into the psychiatric facilities in Ottawa and promised a response. rtafiy (JKDggb Two Ways to Wear This MUSKRAT COAT Top quality muskrat coat, in choice ol styles, some with two way zip bottom. Others nave self trim or large Norwegian fox collar, in demi fitted and boxy models, with leather tie belt in shades of uptone. cherry, cognac. Sizes 8 to 20 and 40 to 42 in the group.

995 Fur Salon Second Floor I CAPLAN'S lies were used exclusively. "We have a system here that works," Bradford said. "It works because of a lot of staff input, a lot of devotion and patience on the part of the staff." But where, the system broke down, Bradford said, was in its care of extremely dangerous and violent offenders and adolescents who couldn't be kept on the ward because the security was just not tight enough. Those patients were either kept in custody at the Ottawa-Carleton Re- gional Detention Centre or the- Juvenile Detention Home on Bronson Avenue, where they were visited by ROH psychiatrists, or remanded to the mental health centre at Penetan-guishene 480 kilome- tres from Ottawa. Bradford and lawyers agree that neither location is satisfactory.

The Ottawa Defence Counsel Association argues that sending accused persons to Pene-tanguishene causes needless delays in the trial process because lawyers are hard pressed to make the two-day trip there to conduct interviews and court hearings can't begin until after the 60-day remand period is over. As well, inmates are denied access to thejr families and often stop receiving treatment when they are sent back to the re- Even for patients within 16 kilometres of the ROH, however, Bradford saw the arrangement as less than adequate. He said they couldn't be monitored on a 24-hour-a-day basis, to the detriment ONLY! frames available manufacturer. OPEN 10 A.M.-9 P.M. 1 i homicide offences, rape or gional detention centre af-arson were only allowed ter being assessed.

(1 Ifli outside on a one-to-one basis. Most of the staff was female to avoid creating a potentially provocative situation hospital officials fear would have occurred if male nurses and order- french TV set to start Hull's CHOT French-language television station Will go on the air Oct. 27, Alain Gourd, president of Tele-Outaouais, announced Thursday. "We will produce about JO hours a week of local programming initially and gradually increase it over two to three years," he said. CHOT was given a per-jnit to broadcast last year fter the co-operatively Operated CFVO television Ration went bankrupt.

The new station, which will operate out of facilities in Hull's Richelieu Industrial Park, will broadcast on Ultra High Frequency (UHF) channel 40. CHOT is part of the Radio-Nord broadcasting chain and initially will employ 60 people, most of ihem already hired. "Our accent will be on jocal community affairs," said Gourd, noting that CHOT is aimed at French-speaking residents Jon both sides of the Ottawa River. Most of the rest of the station's daily programs will be provided by Montreal's Channel 10 French-Hanguage station. workers' pay up The Ottawa police department's 120 civilian staffers and 60 parking control officers received a 4.5-per-cent wage increase iir, a contract for calendar W78 approved by council Thursday.

The contract, subject to inti-Inflation Board approval, also allows time to be taken in time off rather than in cash, with members allowed to bank a maximum of 80 hours in time off. The agreement brings starting salaries to 1 0,72 1.39 from $10,259.70. Top rate in the contract goes to 1 5,797.6 8 from $15,117.40. Jt also improves vacations for members with long service. It introduces a 'fourth week of holidays for the first time, taking effect after 12 years.

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