In mental health crisis and impaired? No room for you in Steinbach ER, says advocate

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An advocate for the homeless believes hospitals should not deny psychiatric care to people who are impaired and in mental health crisis. She also says health-care staff in southern Manitoba need more education and training about how mental health and addiction issues go hand in hand.

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Irene Kroeker is the executive director of Steinbach Community Outreach (SCO) an organization that supports those in need, and who deal with issues of homelessness, addictions and mental health in the southeastern Manitoba city of more than 17,000 residents.

According to Kroeker, SCO is hearing more and more stories of people going to the emergency room at the Bethesda Regional Health Centre in Steinbach for mental health emergencies, but being denied psychiatric care because they are found to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“We are finding out they come in and do toxicology tests, and then they are out in half an hour because they tell them, ‘your problem isn’t mental health, you are on drugs,’ so they won’t triage them,” Kroeker said.

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“But the issue here is that both things can be true at the same time, and often are true at the same time, and that’s what is so frustrating.”

In Steinbach, Kroeker said the vast majority of those who are homeless deal with addictions issues, and are often under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they go into a mental health crisis and she said that is why they continue to hear about people being denied care.

“We have sent some to the ER and they are high, and we know that they are high but they need help, and then it’s often about 20 or 30 minutes and they are back at our doors because they weren’t able to get help,” she said.

Kroeker worries those who are denied psychiatric care could commit suicide, harm themselves or others, or go so deep into a mental health episode that they refuse treatment even when it does become available.

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“There has to be a better way than just throwing them back out onto the streets,” she said.

In the Southern Health region, advocates call for more training for ER staff and for all staff on how to deal with those who are in crisis but are also under the influence.

“In most cases homeless people have addictions issues because they are self-medicating because of their mental health, and that is something that is well known, so it’s all part of the same issue,” she said.

“We need to start educating within the hospital system here a lot more about addictions and mental health and how they go together.”

She said she would also like to see the ER in Steinbach start to find ways to separate those who are having a physical emergency from those who are having a mental health emergency, after a recent incident where she said a woman in a mental health crisis made a “scene” at the ER in Steinbach that was frightening for the others who were waiting in the waiting room.

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“A separate waiting room with a psychiatric doctor would be ideal because we don’t need people being freaked out by those who are having a crisis, but we still need somewhere where those who are having a crisis are kept safe,” she said.

Southern Health didn’t respond to a request for comment before deadline.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Have thoughts on what’s going on in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada or across the world? Send us a letter to the editor at wpgsun.letters@kleinmedia.ca

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