More Blowback for OPSEU
filed in Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Violence on Nov.17, 2008
The Toronto Star ran two strong opinion articles in the past two days, one by Joe Fiorito, and another by Anita Szigeti, attacking the Ontario Public Service Employees Union for its recently half-aborted ad campaign. (The Toronto Sun also ran a news article.) Szigeti points out that of the 23 recent incidents of “violence” against staff at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health that OPSEU cites in its campaign featuring a close-up on the face of a battered woman, over 1/3 were simply “verbal threats” from patients and still others were actually “altercations between staff members”. Szigeti also provides a useful context for the numbers: The 600-bed CAMH “treats more than 20,000 people and responds to more than 400,000 outpatient visits” each year. Another telling example of OPSEU’s dubious history of prejudice against mental patients: “In October 1989, OPSEU members chained the doors of the Penetanguishene Mental Health Centre and locked patients in their rooms for three days in support of their bargaining demands,” Szigeti writes.
November 22nd, 2008 on 8:09 am
It is a myth that people with a mental illness are more violent than anyone else. In fact, people with a mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence. It is unfortunate that OPSEU used this image, which has created a meaning that distracts from the original message.
Workplace violence in mental health is a reality. It is rarely physical and it is rarely initiated by those with a mental illness.
Front line staff need to feel safe going to work; they need to be supported by their managers and the institutions they work for. The health care system needs to recognize that the care in health care is being delivered by humans. These humans need to be treated as such before the entire system disintegrates.
I maintain that mental health workplaces are among the unhealthiest places to work. The high expectations and low rewards lead to exceptionally high rates of stress and burnout. The bullying behaviours of managers and administrators, coupled with the systemic challenges created by the inefficiencies of our governments, perpetuate the emotional and psychological violence experienced in the workplace.