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Capital Health changes guards

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald.

Paladin to take over from RMAC, commissionaires

By Brian Medel

Most Capital Health hospitals will be protected by a new security company beginning Oct. 1.

Paladin Security, Canada’s largest supplier of health facility security, will begin a five-year contract that will cost Capital Health more than $18 million, paying out $3.63 million annually, said a recent notice to staff.

Capital Health now pays about $3 million annually for security, spokesman Peter Graham said Thursday.

The existing contract with two suppliers, RMAC Security and the Nova Scotia division of the Canadian Corps of Commissionaires, will expire Sept. 30.

"We did go out with a (request for proposals) earlier this year," said Graham.

The existing security providers did submitted bids.

"Neither of them were successful," said Graham.

The memo to staff said "RMAC Security and the Corps of Commissionaires have provided us with quality service, for which we are very grateful."

The current security providers will be on the job until midnight Sept. 30, when Paladin Security will take over.

About 100 security officers, 78 of whom are commissionaires, work in Capital Health buildings.

Security staff employed by either the Corps of Commissionaires or RMAC Security will be given opportunity to apply for positions with Paladin, with interviewing and hiring expected to begin almost immediately, said the memo.

The job search website now-hiring.ca said Paladin Security held a job fair in Halifax over two days last week at the Lord Nelson Hotel & Suites, where the company recruited health-care security officers.

Paladin recently opened an office on Spring Garden Road in Halifax.

Two hospital departments that have special security needs are the mental health and emergency units.

Paladin managers will meet with staff from the emergency and mental health departments to ensure the transition is smooth. All Paladin staff receive training that enable them to work in mental health and emergency settings, said the memo.

Health-care security is different from all other types, often involving aggressive patient behaviour, said Leo Knight, chief operations officer with Paladin Security.

"We’re about halfway through our (hiring) process, so we’re probably looking for another 50 to 60 people," Knight said Thursday from Vancouver.

"We got into the Nova Scotia market by doing an acquisition of a local company. . . . Reliant (Security Services)."

It was not a requirement to work here, he said.

"We were coming to the Nova Scotia market anyway. We’re the largest full-service security provider in Canada and we’re the fourth-largest guard company in the country.

"We’re the largest provider of health-care security in the country."

Paladin provides security for every hospital in Alberta and many in British Columbia and Ontario, he said.

Col. Mike Brownlow, chief executive officer of the Nova Scotia division of the corps, said the organization has provided security at Halifax hospitals for many years.

"We’re extremely disappointed, as you can imagine," Brownlow said about not being retained.

"Our relationship has always been a very positive one,"

He said the corps was always concerned with the safety of staff, patients and visitors.

The corps must now look for alternate employment for the 78 veterans hired to work at Capital Health, Brownlow said.

Most commissionaires are military veterans, with some coming from RCMP and municipal police force backgrounds.

Of the 1,700 commissionaires in Nova Scotia, 1,200 are in the Halifax area.

"We’re presently engaging in getting them all placed in different locations," said Brownlow. "There’s a number of them that are retiring.

"Our main mandate is to get employment for veterans."

(bmedel@herald.ca)

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Official defends mental health service

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

Provincial official says officials know system needs more resources

By John McPhee, Health Reporter

Mental health providers are doing the best they can with limited resources for Nova Scotians, the acting head of mental health services for the province said Thursday.

Faizal Nanji was responding to the auditor general’s report released Wednesday. It highlighted failures to meet standards of mental health care.

Jacques Lapointe [pictured] also criticized the standards for being vague and the fact that a clear monitoring system doesn’t exist.

"We knew these standards were something we’d need to aspire to, and really, that a significant amount of resources — financial, human capital — would be required to help bridge the gap," Nanji said in an interview.

But those resources don’t yet exist, he said.

"That’s our constant battle, to continue to advocate from here for increased funding, to make the case," Nanji said. "We’re at a key juncture."

Nova Scotia is the only province to have mental health standards, which were established in 2003.

Lapointe’s office studied 358 cases in three different health authorities and the IWK Health Centre in Halifax in an attempt to gauge how well those standards are being met. Only 14 per cent of those cases met all of the standards the auditor general selected for testing.

For example, when a doctor refers a patient to mental health care, that referral should be reviewed within one working day. The auditor general’s office looked at 125 cases in the Capital, Annapolis Valley and Colchester East Hants health districts, and at the IWK. Of those referrals, 41 were reviewed in one day.

As well, a patient accepted into the system should be assessed within 10 working days. Out of 54 cases examined in the three districts and at the IWK, only six people were assessed within that time, the auditor general said.

The Capital district health authority, the IWK and the other health districts targeted in the report have accepted the auditor general’s recommendations.

Lapointe was working with information from a year ago, a Capital health district official said Thursday.

Progress has already been made in some areas that were singled out, said Barbara Hall, vice-president of person-centred services.

The district does keep tabs of wait times and how quickly cases are reviewed, Hall said.

"Some of those systems are not the best. There a lot of manual processes, and we have been working on improving that."

The province’s mental health services department will work with each of the province’s nine health authorities to improve care, Nanji said.

On top of the auditor general’s report, an IWK official told MLAs this week that up to 1,000 families are on a year-long waiting list for mental health services.

"We’re doing the best we can to provide a service that’s good, safe and accessible," Nanji said. "But again, we do need more resources in various forms."

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Province to build housing for mentally ill

An article published in today's edition of The Chronicle Herald:

The Nova Scotia government is spending $8.6 million on new housing units for people recovering from mental illness.

The government says the units are for people who are moving from inpatient care into the community.

The four community living units will consist of 10 bedrooms and living space.

The province says they will be built on the Nova Scotia Hospital property in the Halifax suburb of Dartmouth.

The Capital District Health Authority and the Mental Health Foundation of Nova Scotia are contributing about $1.7 million, bringing the total cost of the project to $10.3 million.

Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.

How many times will the Government of Nova Scotia announce funding for the same project?