Tag: Stay Safe
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Waypoint mental health workers need security guards on wards
Penetanguishene – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is demanding that Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care immediately hire security personnel on all wards to prevent more violence against workers. Waypoint’s provincial forensic division is home to many patients who have committed serious crimes but have been found not criminally responsible or unfit to stand…
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Waypoint workers speak out about dangers in new video
Penetanguishene – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is releasing a dramatic new video today as part of its campaign to demand a safe workplace for staff at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. Patient attacks on staff are increasing in severity and workers say management isn’t doing enough to prevent it. In the video,…
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OPSEU ad blitz targets safety at Waypoint
The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) has launched a media blitz to highlight what it sees as unsafe working conditions at Penetanguishene’s Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. OPSEU Local 329 president Pete Sheehan said the campaign “could actually help save someone’s life.” Read the full article here in the Midland Mirror. Related: OPSEU…
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Help save a life
The number of assaults by patients against staff at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care is growing, yet management isn’t doing what it should to address worker concerns. OPSEU's radio and print ads are calling on Waypoint to take these issues seriously before another worker is hurt on the job, or killed. Click play button…
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Waypoint mental health workers demand a safer workplace
Penetanguishene – “I’ve been punched so hard I was knocked unconscious and suffered a brain bleed,” says one worker from Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. “I’ve seen a patient throw boiling water on a co-worker’s face,” says another. The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is launching a new campaign today to demand a safe…
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Critical Safety issues at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care
Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care: A brief overview OPSEU Local 329 represents more than 1,200 workers at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, 40 per cent of whom are part-time. The local president is Peter Sheehan. Waypoint is a unique mental health treatment facility. The $474.1-million facility opened in May of 2014. It replaced…
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Waypoint workers need a safer workplace
We take care of some of Canada's most dangerous patients. But who's watching our backs? Workers at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care don’t feel safe. Violent incidents are on the rise and the building itself is a health and safety hazard. We are asking for: Security personnel on all wards to respond quickly to…
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Protect patients and staff: labour board
Brockville – An Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) order made on May 30 that helps protect staff and patients at Brockville Mental Health Centre should be applied provincewide, according to the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). “For the first time in Ontario history, a quasi-judicial body has confirmed that security personnel…
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Ministry of Labour must act now to protect health care workers from violence
Brockville – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is calling on the Ministry of Labour to immediately implement measures to minimize the risk of violence to workers in health care facilities. OPSEU is closely monitoring the start of court proceedings today against Royal Ottawa Health Care Group. The hospital is facing five charges under the…
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Three more workers injured at Waypoint
Penetanguishene – Three workers have been injured in a violent incident at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care. The workers were attacked by a patient in an area of the building that houses people who are found unfit to stand trial, or found not criminally responsible for violent crimes. “Three workers were taken to Georgian…
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Union slams Ministry of Labour for “outrageous failure” to protect staff at Waypoint
Penetanguishene – The union local at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health is outraged over a series of Ministry of Labour (MoL) orders issued yesterday in the wake of a violent attack that injured four staff April 5. “Staff in the provincial forensic program at Waypoint are subject to violent abuse every day, and we expected…
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Staff protest working conditions at Waypoint
Staff at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care are sounding alarm bells about safety, saying they regularly face danger in their jobs and management has not done much to help. Pete Sheehan, president of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 329, said the “policies and procedures of Waypoint management are putting people in danger.”…
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Charges laid in Waypoint stabbing (Orillia Packet and Times)
Charges have been laid following an assault at Waypoint Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene last week. OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas said a nurse suffered wounds to his back along with a broken nose and jaw after trying to help another nurse after she had been stabbed during the attack. Members of OPSEU plan to…
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Ontario’s Waypoint hospital is unsafe (Toronto Sun)
There are clearly huge safety and security problems at the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, particularly in its $474-million Atrium building, which has housed the most dangerous patients since it opened in May, 2014. Read the full article in the Toronto Sun. Related: OPSEU in the News
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Screwdriver stabbing at max-security psych hospital (Toronto Sun)
Nurses at Ontario’s all-male maximum-security psychiatric hospital in Penetanguishene warned the Sun back in September they fear for their lives. A brutal double-screwdriver stabbing Tuesday evening showed, once again, why. Read the full article in The Toronto Sun.
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Top ministers responsible for Waypoint attack, OPSEU says
Toronto – Two top Ontario cabinet ministers must take the blame for a violent attack that badly injured four staff at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Penetanguishene, the President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union says. “Waypoint is a dangerous facility for staff, and it’s a dangerous facility for clients,” Warren (Smokey)…