Security officers hired for EKRH and 25 other facilities

Desktop – Leaderboard

Home » Security officers hired for EKRH and 25 other facilities

Posted: November 22, 2023

Security officers hired for EKRH and 25 other facilities

The B.C. government last week announced it has recruited 320 new relational security officers to safeguard health-care workers and patients around the province, including for East Kootenay Regional Hospital (EKRH) in Cranbrook.

All protection-services personnel receive training in workplace violence prevention and mental health. They also receive trauma-informed practice training to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and language to apply a trauma-informed perspective to interactions with patients, families, clients and colleagues, the Ministry of Health explained in a media release.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing toxic-drug crisis have exacerbated challenges in the health-care system, and compromised the safety of the workplace for some health-care employees and quality care of patients,” said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health.

“That’s why a year ago, we made a commitment to hire 320 new relational security officers by fall 2023 to rectify the situation. Today, I am pleased to report that 320 workers have been hired within the health authorities for all 26 sites that were identified. This commitment will significantly improve the safety of our health-care facilities and help us better retain and recruit health workers, as well as care for our patients.”

In October 2022, the province provided health authorities with funding to establish a relational security model in 26 health-care settings and hire staff to support it. The new model ensures all security personnel have an acute awareness of patients and their surroundings, as well as how to anticipate, de-escalate and ultimately prevent aggression, the Ministry of Health said.

It is based on trauma-informed practice, which integrates knowledge of how people are affected by trauma into procedures, practices and services to create a safer environment for staff and patients.

“As minister of labour, workplace safety is a top priority. We owe it to health-care workers who are dedicated to taking care of sick and injured people to provide them with safe work environments,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour.

“B.C.’s health-care system is facing severe shortages of specialized health professionals like registered psychiatric nurses, social workers, respiratory therapists and over 70 other professions who struggle with excessive workload to keep the system running every day. Violence against those who deliver front-line care only makes these shortages worse, threatening to push many health professionals out of the system and leaving British Columbians without the care they need,” stated Kane Tse, president of Health Sciences Association (HSA).

“HSA welcomes the government’s goals for reducing violence in the health-care system. We look forward to shared efforts to address the deeper issues which continue to drive aggression and violence against the people who care for all of us.”

Meena Brisard, secretary-business manager of the Hospital Employees’ Union added, “It’s great news that we now have the resources in place to move forward with this initiative to improve patient and worker safety in health settings across the province. Under this new security model, workers in protection services will be trained to manage tense and sometimes violent scenarios with a trauma-informed perspective to help de-escalate situations in a safe and respectful way.”

Indigenous cultural safety and anti-Indigenous racism are key components of the training. Engagement with unions and Provincial Health Service Authority’s Indigenous Health have taken place, including consultations with First Nations Health Authority and Fraser Health.

Workplace violence is defined as incidents where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or health.

For nurses and health-care assistants (both predominantly female workforces), violence was the third-most common cause of time-loss claims between Jan. 1, 2020, and Oct. 16, 2023, the first being patient handling, followed by communicable disease.