THUNDER BAY - Officials with the region's hospital say a "behavioral incident" in the forensic mental health unit over the weekend caused minor damage.
According to Dr. Peter Voros, director of mental health with the Thunder Bay hospital, the incident took place on Dec. 30 in the forensic unit. Few details are being revealed about the incident, but sources tell tbnewswatch.com the incident led to some water damage in the unit.
“We had an appropriate response to deal with the situation, which was under control,” Voros said.
“There was some mild, moderate damage on the unit, which has all been repaired at this time.”
Voros said the damages were all cosmetic in nature and were repaired by Saturday morning. He added the hospital was not placed under lockdown as a result of the incident
The forensic mental health unit is a locked and secure unit where patients are detained as either not criminally responsible or unfit to stand trial. All forensic mental health units are governed by the Ontario Review Board.
“It’s pretty standard for most forensic and adult mental health units to have procedures in place to deal with behaviors,” Voros said. “The entire hospital will have similar procedures. Patients can be unpredictable, not just within a mental health unit, but in any unit.”
Voros did not say if police where involved in the disruptive behavior incident on Dec. 30, but explained that there are protocols in place to handle those types of incidents.
“Our protocols involve both hospital staff from multiple units, security from the hospital, and our standard protocol involves the police often as well,” he said.
No patients were injured during the incident and Voros said he was not able to comment about staff involved in the incident.
The forensic mental health unit at the Thunder Bay Hospital houses 20 patients. The average length of stay for a patient is three years.
The Ontario Review Board determines a patient’s ability to leave the unit during a review held once a year. Voros said despite occasional behavioral incidents, forensic units are very safe.
“For us they are actually fairly rare,” he said.
“We don’t have a lot of difficult incidents on that unit. It’s a pretty small unit and the staff know the patients very well and have very good working relationships with them. Patients are also there for an extended period of time and get to know staff really well and those relationships help to keep the unit safe.”
