The president of the Manitoba Nurses Union is “thrilled” that more than a dozen institutional safety officers are on the job now at Brandon Regional Health Authority.
But Darlene Jackson said health-care workers in other rural and northern locations are at risk and need the same security upgrades at their places of employment.
“I’m thrilled they are now in Brandon,” Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said Monday.
The 2025 graduating class of Prairie Mountain Health’s new institutional safety officers (ISOs) who have been trained to patrol Brandon Regional Health Centre (BRHC). They are the first of their kind for western Manitoba, licensed as peace officers with specific training to work in health-care environments, with crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques, search and investigation, evidence collecting and report writing skills. (Submitted)
“But they also need them in Thompson. They need them in Swan River. They need them where they have much higher violence rates. “
Jackson noted Thompson General Hospital had a violent incident on Christmas Eve where a firearm was discharged in the facility’s chapel.
No one was injured in the incident and a 33-year-old Thompson man was quickly arrested by RCMP and charged with the offence.
Following a graduation ceremony Friday, 16 safety officers and a supervisor began working at Brandon’s hospital Sunday.
Jackson said she has heard nothing but praise for the safety officers since the program launched at Winnipeg’s Health Sciences Centre last spring.
“The staff there are very happy with their performance,” she said. “They are doing what they are meant to be doing.”
A spokesperson for Shared Health, which operates HSC, said the 42 officers already in place at Manitoba’s largest hospital complex help “enhance safety and security.” The authority is in the process of hiring an additional 21 officers for the inner-city facility.
“We’ve seen a significant drop in reported safety events through the addition of expanded foot patrols and placement of security at key access points, including in the emergency department,” the spokesperson said.
“The enhanced training of ISOs has been valuable when dealing with serious incidents that require de-escalation.”
The officers have also enabled Shared Health to expand “safe escort programming,” in which staff members can request personnel to accompany them to their parked vehicles on the inner-city campus, where there have been violent incidents and some workers have reported feeling unsafe.
In a statement, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said “everyone deserves to feel safe when they are accessing health care and when they are providing it.”
Health officials heard directly from front-line staff at BRHC about safety and security concerns they have for themselves, co-workers and patients, Asagwara said.
“After many years of inaction by the previous government, we’re taking real steps to address these concerns.”
A provincial ministry spokesperson said currently there are a total of 90 institutional safety officers in place at HSC, BRHC, St. Boniface Hospital, Victoria Hospital and the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.
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