 everyone for being with us today. Good morning. I'm Adrian Dix, I'm BC's Minister of Health. I want to begin by acknowledging that we are on the territories of the Musqueam of the Squamish and the Slewa Tooth. We are honored to be here today on their lands. I'm here today with the President of the BC Nurses Union, the Secretary of Business Manager of the Hospital Employee Union, David Durning, the Occupational Health and Safety Association, and Victoria Schmidt, CEO of SwitchBC. Today we are here to discuss an important issue that affects all healthcare employees and all patients and families who are in, in particular, acute care hospitals. And that's workplace violence. Here's what we know. We know that healthcare employees experience more workplace violence than workers in other sectors. We know that most healthcare employees have experienced more than they have experienced before. The most healthcare employees have experienced or witnessed violence in their workplaces. And we know workplace violence significantly affects their physical and mental health, requiring healthcare employees to take time off work or worse, leave the healthcare field entirely. This is not a situation we can afford or justify. And certainly it's not one that we can endure. That is why we've made workplace safety one of our key actions in our health human resources plan. Making our healthcare facilities free of violence will ensure all healthcare employees have safe and healthy workplaces. And that the patients who count on them are accessing care in a safe environment. Making our healthcare facilities free of violence will not only help us recruit and retain healthcare workers, it will improve patient care and continuity. Making this commitment and delivering action on it is the right thing to do for patients and the talented, skilled and dedicated healthcare employees they depend on. And I want to express my appreciation in particular to the representatives of the Health Sciences Association, the hospital employees union, the BC nurses union who have been so much part of working with us for advocating for these models over the last number of years and for all their work on all the issues related to the occupational health and safety of healthcare workers. But making our healthcare facilities free of violence for employees and the patients who count on that requires a comprehensive and coordinated approach. We will be implementing an innovative security model called the relational security model in 26 healthcare settings across all health authorities. Hiring 320 in-house protection service officers and 14 violence prevention leads to ensure security personnel have an acute awareness of patients and their surroundings. Health authorities are prioritizing high-risk facilities for the program including emergency departments and mental health units. Through this new model, security personnel will be able to anticipate, de-escalate and ultimately prevent aggression and violence. To implement the relational security model, we are fully committed in working with healthcare employees across the board. This will be a significant addition and change and it will be extremely good news for everyone who visits our hospital and everyone who works in our hospitals and other healthcare facilities. In addition to those actions, we have recently provided $2 million to switch BC, a new organization dedicated to addressing healthcare workplace safety. This is in addition to the 8.5 million over three years announced in 2019 to establish switch, which stands for safety, well-being, innovation, training and collaboration in healthcare. Through this funding, switch BC is developing, implementing and supporting actions to promote workplace safety. Victoria Schmidt from switch BC will tell you more about those efforts in a few minutes. The relational security model we will be using is based on trauma-informed practice, which integrates knowledge of how people are affected by trauma into procedures, practices and services. All protection services personnel will be trained in workplace violence prevention, mental health and advanced customer service. They will also receive trauma-informed practice training that will help them to interact with patients, families, clients and colleagues safely and knowledgeably. Trauma-informed practice involves recognizing this link and making sure people feel safe and are not re-traumatized or triggered by their care. When people feel safe, they are far less likely to behave aggressively. Protection service personnel are on the front lines of our healthcare system, keeping patients, families and healthcare workers safe. By empowering protection service workers with the right training and knowledge, we are preparing them to respond to the most challenging situations and achieve the best possible outcomes for healthcare workers and for patients. Ensuring the consistency and training across the protection service officers will be the responsibility of switch BC, which is renewing and making sure people are safe and safe in their care. We are preparing them to respond to the violence prevention curriculum. The relational security initiative is just one part of the health human resources strategy announced September 29. This strategy puts people first by ensuring they get the health services they need and are cared for by a healthy workforce now and in the future. And with that, I am very pleased to welcome Oman Gurawal from the BC nurses union. Thank you, Minister Dix. Thank you, Minister Dix. As mentioned, my name is Oman Gurawal and I am the president of the BC nurses union. I would like to acknowledge that I am honored to be here on the unseated territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Swaila Tooth people. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight just how important today's announcement is for the nurses and also all allied health workers, care for their patients every day to care for their patients and deserve a safe work environment to provide care to their patients or clients. I have to take a moment to think of all the nurses in this province who have experienced violence at their workplace. Nurses are exposed to real violence in the workplace. Our members get punched, kicked, grabbed, spat on, as well as being verbally and sexually hurt. Our work is dangerous and we know that this danger is underreported and understudied across the healthcare system. We know that injury rates amongst nurses are on par with, if not, higher than rates reported by other first responder professionals. We also know that thousands of nurses in BC are watching at the same time. We also know that nurses in BC are watching as their work sites grow increasingly violent. Desperately short-staffed facilities are often leading to understandable frustration and fear amongst patients and their loved ones. Something we are seeing at rising levels across the system. Nurses and healthcare workers are treating more patients with complex health needs. Wait times in emergency rooms are ballooning and the toxic, the joint toxic drug and COVID crises are adding strain to an already overtaxed healthcare system. Whether it's nurses, doctors, and all healthcare workers, or even our patients, their families and visitors, we need a healthcare system that is safe. One where violence, threatening behaviors, and the health care system that is safe. Threatening behaviors, harassment is no longer tolerated and normalized. There are simply not enough protections in our workplaces to keep nurses safe from violent incidents when they do occur. During the past decade, hundreds of British Colombians, hundreds of British Colombian nurses have been injured on the job due to violence. The impact of this violence has been far-reaching, the lives of the nurses who often never return to work. While placing huge strain on their families, coworkers, their employers, and the community, the healthcare system has a duty to each and every one of these groups to do better. BCNU has been tireless in our advocacy on this regard. We have spent the past 10 years advocating for hands-on trained security in emergency rooms, high-risk sites, and other healthcare settings. Our multi-year province-wide campaign, violence not part of the job, brought the issue of violence and healthcare to the forefront and changed public perception of the issue. Since 2019, we have been calling for protective security officers to be part of the healthcare team at nearly two dozen high-risk work facilities. We have been calling on government to hire officers who understand the complexity of the environment and have the tools, skills, and mandate to reduce the risk of violence while fully understanding the importance of de-escalation and trauma informed action as part of the care team. Today's announcement is a step towards making this a reality at all healthcare facilities. BCNU expects to be fully involved in the implementation of this program and looks forward to improving workplace safety for the tens of thousands of dedicated healthcare professionals in this province who put their patients first. Too often at the risk of their own safety. Thank you. Thank you, Aamon, and it's important, I think, it's fundamental for healthcare workers, including nurses, to feel safe while they are caring for their patients. I know that this new model, which has been developed, and is going to be developed in consultation and is implemented in consultation and involvement of all healthcare unions, of healthcare workers, and of the public, is going to go a long way to promote workplace safety. Next, I would like to invite Mina Brasar, the secretary business manager, the hospital director. Thank you so much, Minister Dix. The hospital employees represents more than 50,000 skilled healthcare workers across British Columbia, and they work in hundreds of rules on the healthcare team. For some of our members, carried being the largest classification, acts of force and violence are the second largest reason for time lost due to injury at work, the first being soft tissue injuries. While the majority of interactions our members have with patients, with care home residents, and the public are usually safe and routine, but that's not always the case. For some, their interactions with the healthcare system happens on difficult days. Days when they are experiencing trauma and stress or confusion and fear. So we are very much in support of the minister's plans to create the best resources into in-house protection service officers who are specifically trained in trauma-informed practice and who can assist in mitigating violent episodes and deescalating potentially violent situations. Now, integrating these new staff into the healthcare team as health authority employees is critical to coordinating our work on violence prevention across the healthcare workforce. I want to thank the minister for his ongoing support for switch BC, an agency specifically focused on improving health and safety outcomes in healthcare. As you have heard, switch BC is leading our work in improving the provincial violence prevention curriculum. We are proud of our role in helping negotiate this new agency and we are looking forward to the important work they will do in making our healthcare workplaces safer. Workplace injuries, including those due to violence, are contributing to worker burnout and compounding our staffing crisis. So these investments in worker health and safety today will help our efforts to retain skilled staff and recruit healthcare workers we need for the future. They will also make healthcare safer for patients and the public by refocusing our violence prevention efforts and recognizing trauma and deescalating our workplaces. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mina. I would like to now introduce our next speaker, David Derning from the Health Sciences Association. He is the occupational health and safety advisor to the Health Sciences Association. Welcome to the stage. David. I am doing the whole move. I am going to where you are going. Thank you, minister Dix. I would also like to thank my colleagues who have joined us here at BC. As minister Dix said, I am David Derning with Health Sciences Association. Our union represents approximately 20,000 workers, many of whom are in the front lines in healthcare across the province working in a team environment along with colleagues from the BC nurses union, with physicians, with hospital employees, workers and others across the health sector. We along with many of our colleagues have been advocating for improvements in health and safety, especially in terms of dealing with violence and aggression in the workplace for many years. We worked collaboratively a number of years ago in developing the provincial violence prevention curriculum which has been rolled out across the province and we have been advocating more recently for the need to update that curriculum from a trauma informed understanding of situations in our workplaces and we are happy to work with you all forward. Work in the health sector, as most of you will know, is really based on teamwork. So we work together in teams at all levels in the health sector and there is a need to be very specific and focused when we look at violence prevention in our workplaces and there is a need to work collaboratively among all of the stakeholders in the sector when we are reviewing our health and safety procedures around dealing with violence and aggression in the workplace and including protection services in those discussions and to really work to expose some of the gaps that exist in our systems and there is a need to update those systems so again we really appreciate this opportunity and investment in health and safety across the sector and we look forward to working collaboratively with our colleagues as we review the violence prevention curriculum and look at ways and opportunities to really work towards having safer workplaces for all workers in the sector which will make it much easier for recruitment and retention of staff going forward and it is in the best interests of workers and all of our patients and clients to have a safe workplace where violence and aggression should not be at the top of mind for anyone going to work these days in the health sector so once again we appreciate this opportunity. Thank you very much David and I think it is fair to say that these have been unbelievably challenging times to public health emergencies and all of the challenges that face our health care system and the extraordinary response of health care workers including health sciences professionals in our province who have just done exceptional work over the last few years under sometimes challenging circumstances. It is now my pleasure to welcome Victoria Schmidt, the CEO of switch BC to speak more about the role of switch BC in today's announcement. Victoria? Victoria. I will go this way. I will go to your spot. Thanks so much minister Dix and also thank you to our partner organizations HSA, BC nurses union and HEU who are here today for this announcement and thank you for allowing switch to be part of this really important work. I want to acknowledge that switch BC does its work across the country and that is on the unceded territories of close to 200 distinct first nations as well as acknowledging first matee and Inuit who make their homes on these lands. Everyone working in health care has the right to be safe and healthy, to thrive on the job and to go home safe to their friends and their families. Today's announcement reinforces that we need to address these complex challenges that we have in health care in a collaborative manner across the country and across the communities. At switch BC we are honored to be leading the refresh of the provincial violence prevention curriculum for everyone who works in health care in BC. As the minister said, switch BC stands for safety, well-being, innovation, training and collaboration in health care. We are a new organization and we are focused on workplace health, safety and well-being for the close to 300,000 workers who work in health care in this area. We recognize that it is diversity of thinking and diversity of experience that creates the most robust solutions. That is how we will be approaching this work. Our partners at BC nurses union in 2019 found that on average 26 nurses a day were reporting injuries due to violence in the workplace. I know personally that effect because I am married to a nurse and I have been impacted by violence in the workplace through my relationship. I know that when we look at just in our nursing workforce, that is close to one person a day being impacted by violence in the workplace. We also know that under reporting in health care is huge ironically because the incidents are so frequent. We have to do something about this. Work safe BC found in 2020 that 59% of all violent incidents were actually reported in health care and social services. That is why it is so important to work in law enforcement. I have watched so many health care teams get back to work after a violent incident and put the needs of their patients, clients and residents ahead of their own needs. That trade off is unacceptable. We shouldn't have to look at delivering exceptional patient care at the expense of staff and physicians in our system. We have to do better. We will do better and the way we will do this is to than it did six years ago when this curriculum was refreshed. We know now so much more about the importance that trauma-informed and cultural safety and humility principles play in actually preventing violence in the first place but also in de-escalating people when they are in an agitated state. We know that really well-developed training leads to lower incidents and the risk of violence in the workplace. We also know that different people have different experiences depending on where they work. So the experience of a porter working in northern BC is going to be different than the experience of a health care aide in Vancouver or a surgical team in Kamloops. And how we deliver and create curriculum has to look at those differences in order for it to be effective. We need to look at different methods of delivery and how people learn. We also need to look at language. We speak so many languages across the province and we have to make sure that our training is accessible to everyone. And we need to create consistency in how the program is delivered and how that training is delivered. So regardless of where you work in health care, you deserve the highest quality training possible. We also know most importantly that hearing directly from people who are involved in working in health care is how you create the most robust solutions and we want to hear from you. If you work in health care in this province, we want you to go to switchbc.ca and look for the your say link and help us build the best program possible to prevent violence in the workplace. Together we can create a violence prevention program that protects healthcare teams and allows us to deliver the best care possible for patients, clients and residents. And this is a delicate balance that our teams work through every single day out in the system. Education is one vital part of keeping the people who work in health care safe. This coupled with the additional supports announced today by the Ministry of Health are concrete steps that we can take to collaboratively work to better care for the people who care for us. Thank you. Thank you. Healthcare employees, patients and families all deserve healthy environments to give and receive care. And today is an important day for every one of us who understands the critical impact of healthcare workplace safety on the well-being of patients, their families, healthcare workers and the healthcare system. We are on I'm honored to be here with this team. I think that the work of SwitchBC is so assisted and informed by the fact that representatives of workers are on the board driving the agenda as well as representatives of work safety and of the public. And I think these are critical. This is a critical time to make improvements as is required in all of the elements of our Health Human Resources Plan but part of that plan surely has to be to retain healthcare workers and ensure healthcare workplaces are such the people that we're recruiting in that system can feel safe to do the work that is so necessary for the public good in BC. And with that I'm happy to take your questions. Thank you. A reminder to the reporters on the phone, please press star one to enter the queue. You'll be limited to one question and one follow-up. Please also remember to take your phone off mute as you are not audible until your name is called. The first question is from Rob Buffen, CTV, Vancouver Island. Hi Rob. Oh hi, good morning. Can you hear me okay? Can hear you great. It's like you're here. Good, good, good. Well listen, I only have one question because it's not specifically on this topic but I wanted to get your reaction minister to what is a current shortage of flu and cold medicines we're seeing on Vancouver Island at least many pharmacies in the area especially when it comes to kids cold and flu medicines simply don't have that. I spoke to one on Friday that said they've been told they won't get it till January. And as you know we're entering cold and flu season. What's your reaction? Is there anything the province can do and what is your reaction to this situation? Well, my reaction is that it's obviously not a positive thing and we have to we're working and this is a supply chain issue at a manufacturing level and at a national level that we're facing and we're working with the federal government to try and improve access to these things but what it also says is in this in this season for people of all ages who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine or a flu shot which is most everybody in one way or another right now is that they get their COVID-19 vaccine and they get their flu shot it's important for the healthcare system but it's important for you we've had we're off to an extremely good start in our flu shot campaign we're well ahead of the pace of last year and the year before I think at this point we're at in the neighborhood of 400,000 flu shots we've done we're between 700 and 800,000 bivalent Moderna or Pfizer vaccines that have been administered so these are important things but we need to keep going if you've been invited or COVID-19 vaccine go and get vaccinated if you've been invited for a flu shot and that's just about everybody now go and get vaccinated and we've seen a good response so far but the key part of it is now to push those numbers into the millions from the hundreds of thousands and if we do that that will help with the prevention both of severe outcomes and the prevention and the lessening of the impact of flu season and obviously of COVID-19 on everyone it affects our hospitals it affects our public health as well and people's ability to go on with their lives so I strongly encourage people to be vaccinated and these demands in terms of the non-prescription healthcare the non-prescription drugs that are where there's a challenge in the marketplace now it's not just these we've seen some of these through the COVID-19 pandemic with the you can tell listeners in terms of when we might see medicine remember these aren't these aren't in general these are not produced by government right so if it's a supply chain question it's a it's a supply chain question outside of government I know that we're obviously actively working and we're actively encouraging people to ensure that we're not having a rush on the remaining supply which can cause a problem as well in lots of places but there there isn't any timeline that timeline would come in the case of specific cold and flu non-prescription cold and flu products medicines you know outside of government so it's the role of our governments to work with suppliers and both encourage them and to see what we can do and to work obviously with pharmacy to make sure that those supplies we have are properly distributed but it's a challenge and it reminds us Rob and I know you've heard me say it to the last question of the need to get vaccinated need to get your flu shot need to get your COVID-19 bivalent vaccination now when you're invited to do so and and this is all the more reason to do so and this these supply chain issues which you see in a lot of areas of the economy have a real impact and they they cause real concern especially for family members and for I'm for children especially obviously for children but for their mums and dads and others so we have to we're going to do what we can to assist in this matter but we also have to do what all of us can do which is to get vaccinated. Our next question is from Camille Baines, Canadian Press. Hi Camille. Hi Mr. Kate, how are you? I'm doing great. I'm fully vaccinated Camille, I'm fully vaccinated. I'm with you there. So what about long-term care and home care workers who are not working at sites operated by health authorities? Does this violence prevention program have anything to do with them? So the some of this is is other sites but this is primarily focused on 26 sites that have been identified both by switch by the Ministry of Health and by by workers by the BC nurses union by the hospital employees union by the Health Sciences Association where we're seeing the most significant incidents. This model may extend out beyond that but that's what we're looking at right now. In long-term care there are significant occupational health and safety issues. One of them was the fact that when I became Minister of Health 90% of facilities were below staffing standards minimum staffing standards the one set by the government itself and we've taken action to improve that situation. We have added on the infection control side and with the age cap program some 6600 health care workers but the challenges of long-term care the challenges that there are ongoing issues to be worked on as well but this model is focused mostly not exclusively but mostly on acute care and of course some of the significant places where there are challenges including emergency rooms including mental health units of acute care hospitals so that's our focus but that doesn't mean there aren't issues in long-term care as between residents sometimes because of the circumstances of those in long-term care and staff and and sometimes others. The situation in long-term care was different over the period of the early period of the pandemic. They're obviously less open than hospitals are to visits but now we're back on visitations and we're obviously carefully monitoring this but this initiative today the 320 staff the 26 sites that's been identified with health care workers and with the Ministry of Health. Camille do you have a follow-up? Yeah thank you. I'd like to know when this program is expected to get started and if you could walk me through maybe I'm going to do that regarding some of the triggers that cause violence and who is most likely to be a perpetrator of violence? I might ask Victoria if you want to speak to the letter in a moment. We're proceeding now and so even in this fiscal year which is between right now the end of October approaching the end of October and March 31st it'll be an expenditure of four point one seven million dollars as we build out and hire and perform all the training over the next over the next period. So I think we're proceeding and obviously when you're talking about hiring both hiring staff and putting in place new models in addition to what we have now that takes some time but we're starting the work is starting and you'll see action you're seeing action now and in this fiscal year and then obviously built over out after that. So I think this is a key part of both the health human resources agenda and a key part of advocacy of nurses in BC of health care workers in BC of health sciences professionals in BC of doctors in BC. They have advocated for this kind of change in model and we're doing two things here. One we're involving everyone in the implementation proposal by involving switch BC which is a joint venture between people who work in health care and the and the provincial government has an outstanding new team and WorkSafe BC of course on on the one hand and the other is the investment in staff and you know significant changes have occurred in the past you know this the privatization of workers in 2002 and other steps that have been taken to cut back supports in this area in those years that followed well circumstances I think mean that that approach is no longer acceptable and that's why we're taking the action we've taken today having received and heard what our workers have said perhaps you want to speak to the question of yeah so I would say when it comes to who are the perpetrators of violence in the system it really can be anyone and I say this because this is why we're focused on refreshing the curriculum and training because what we do know is that our ability to recognize and understand how trauma impacts people will be very important our ability to de-escalate people who are agitated will be really important I've seen a father come into our system and commit a violent incident because he was so distraught because he felt like he couldn't help his son in the state that his son was in this was a perfectly regular person that just came in with their son and and turned into a violent incident in our workplace I've seen someone come in with previous trauma that was re-triggered by the care that they were receiving and commit violence in the workplace there are lots of reasons why people are violent in our workplaces and that's why we are really focused on creating a very robust training system that helps our workers know when to recognize people that may have trauma in their background recognize when people may be escalating and recognize when you need to ask for extra help when treating patients clients and families next question is from Martin McMahon city news Martin go ahead hi Martin hi minister I've got a question for Miss Greywell to start or anyone else who could speak to this that we've heard in general about statistics but would you mind sharing a personal story or two about what you've seen in terms of violence at hospitals I appreciate there may be some privacy concerns but as long as names or locations aren't used hopefully there's a way of just sort of highlighting some of these situations yeah when I'm certain and maybe Alvin you can speak to that I think um I think one of the things we have to understand that and you spend it anytime in particular acute care hospital but also excuse me with mental health in a mental health facility or unit when you spend time in general there I think we we all have to acknowledge we have to acknowledge this as family members we have to acknowledge this as patients when we go into hospital that we're never at our best no one wants to present in an emergency room unless they're not doing well and that means by definition for starters we're not at our best these are really challenging times we had a circumstance last fall where people in the hundreds had to be moved out of critical care principally in the northern health authority south we have on friday we had roughly 9500 people in acute care hospitals across bc and all of these present real challenges and they're real challenges on different days it's not every day where the emergency room is really busy but when it is and the circumstances are such you know sometimes on a friday night or whatever it can be very difficult recently just because of a family member I had occasion to be spend a number of weeks as a as a family member in a hospital and you see that up and down and how it can come on as well without notice sometimes there are days when things are extraordinarily busy and there's there's tension other days though it can come because we are not at our best and that's why making these changes and giving priority to staff and their need for security and to be violence free is a real important part of a health human resources plan as important as recruiting people to the hospital thank you minister dicks and hello martin so there are many different occasions where violence can take place there are the long wait times that people get frustrated and don't understand why they aren't being treated first because to them their injury or illness is important but you may have a trauma that may have come in or other more serious patients that you need to tend to and the wait lists are long we've had patients who have had their surgery deferred in the evening they were on the wait list on call to go to the or and then an emergency surgery came they got bumped and they were bumped to the next day they had been fasting all day frustrations over being not having the surgery but also having been fasting all day um we have the mental health and addictions where we do have people coming in to our emergency rooms who are you know intoxicated on a substance and they are not of their right mind at that moment and so their behavior can be erratic can be aggressive and sometimes they have to be restrained or put into a security room and they will oppose that and you need security to assist with getting them in there to for their own protection but they're not understanding that so there are a lot of different scenarios that take place it can be a family member that gets upset at the treatment that is being provided or not getting enough information and that may just be enough that they will become violent and aggressive we do have homeless people that are admitted to the hospitals who then you know there are challenges with other people coming in and wanting to stay with them in the hospital and us having to remove them because they're not being taken care of in the hospital setting and we need to ensure the safety of all of our other patients so we don't know the scenario it always is something different and unexpected and you know our staff all the allied health care workers etc do an amazing job trying to de-escalate but this news of having the protection service officers is very welcome news thank you you have a follow-up uh yes a question for minister dicks given the moment we're in we hear concern from some about policing and how it's done i understand the security personnel are not police officers but are you worried at all that some people will be maybe hesitant about coming to hospital due to more of a security presence there um no i don't think so i think um this is why the training in this model is important we want to de-escalate as much as possible but we want to i think what what i'm saying is the decisions that have been taken the past to private high security services and to downgrade them we're not the right decisions and we have to make different decisions now at a time of two public health emergencies and so i think people will should see this and take comfort in this action because while it protects healthcare workers there's a lot of people in an emergency room there's a lot of people in the hospital at any given time there are family members there's the patients or prospective patient there's um and there's other staff and obviously the rcmp um especially when they're bringing people in who may be under arrest or other circumstances are have a presence in uh or municipal police force have a presence in in our hospitals now so i think um this action taken today is not an issue of us protecting health care workers against patients it's protecting patients and health care workers and family members and making the health care environment safe in these 26 locations and i expect others in future so i think quite the contrary that we obviously have a lot of people presenting in health care right now more than we would typically we do as well at urgent and primary care centers and other places because there's less in there's been less in-person care now for a couple of years and these are issues we're working on with all our employees across all aspects of care but i think i think patients in particular people coming in would expect that place to be safe and these actions help make our health care facilities safer next question is from mark knelson prince george citizen mark hi mark hi there hi hi hi thank you for taking my questions um just first off wanted to confirm that uh prince george will be part of this program yes the three in the northern health authority mark or mills memorial prince rupert regional hospital and university hospital in northern british columbia and these sites were um were jointly identified by uh ourselves by the bcnu by the hospital employee union by the health sciences association and others these are the sites where we see the most urgent need right now so yes the university hospital northern british columbia will be part of this program mark do you have a follow-up i would i i shared yes i do as i i i'm trying to get a bit uh some specifics maybe on on how the security aspect works are these we're going to be hiring more security guards um and will they be hired directly by the province um and will they be receiving additional training to what they presently be given being have been getting would that be the way to put it mark you got it almost exactly right and so i hesitate to add to that but yes uh i'm fully implemented 320 full-time equivalent which means full-time in-house unionized protection services officers and 14 violence prevention leads will be hired uh across health authorities so that's significant and yes we're uh developed we're we're putting in place a new relational security model which is being developed and switch bc talked about this a bit that ensures that all security personnel have an have an awareness of patients in their surrounding as well as how to anticipate de-escalate and ultimately prevent aggression as victoria schmidter said earlier the circumstances of different hospitals and different health authorities both in terms of sometimes the use of different languages other things makes them uh means that there are a variety of challenges in other words this model has to meet the challenge of a particular health care facility that is being put in but in general you're right it means hiring more people in-house it means putting in place a new security model and it means ensuring people are trained and well trained in that model and that's why we are we've integrated this effort why we've brought together the various players we're going to work together to put this in place uh in part through switch bc which is developing the training our next question is from shannon peterson ctv shannon go ahead hi shannon hi it's patterson said that's okay i i know you're a big type television star so everyone knows sure yeah exactly um so i might you answered my last question a little bit but um the last question answered it but are these going to be uniformed security guards that say security or will they be people who look more like plain clothes who are there to help in less of a visible way to try to de-escalate the situation like will the members of the public notice these people or will they be sort of amongst hospital staff and less visible yes they will be noticeable absolutely they will be noticeable i mean a hospital is um and i hesitate to discuss this with so many experts in the room right but a hospital is in many ways a highly structured place right so you often know not just in terms of security but who you're dealing with by the kind of uniform they're using right that's from from uh health care assistants to uh to doctors to nurses to science professionals to others so um yes they will be noticeable and they'll be trained and and uh and they'll be trained especially in de-escalation they'll be there to support uh healthcare workers as they go about their tasks we do have of course security anyone who's been a hospital knows we have security in hospitals this is in addition to this to ensure a higher level of safety and security in a time when i think that those things are necessary for everyone i think it's a fair statement to say they've been necessary for some time in fact you know i think it's fair to say that that they were necessary um uh in years where there were cuts made to this area but we've seen an increase really since the early 2000s in both work safe claims related to violence and issues around occupational health and safety in general for health care workers and those are key issues to address we need our we need um our health care workers in bc our health care workers our health care professionals everybody to be able to feel safe so yes indeed you will be able to identify this highly trained group of workers who whose job it will be to keep everybody safe from patients to families to of course health care workers Shannon Patterson do you have follow-up yes uh so these will be uniformed security guards the 300 and some odd people that are being hired will they look different than other security guards will they uh be labeled differently with to switch health um i'm just trying to get a sense of what people may notice if they go to the hospital that might be different once this is fully implemented and to these officers not officers security guards have the ability to physically restrain if necessary or would that always come down to police if it's required at different points of course people there's i i think and i'll uh i can ask very others can forward but there are all kinds of procedures in place now people will know sometimes they're in a hospital and they'll hear this they'll hear a code white and code white means there's an issue and somewhere in the hospital and people are responding to that and they do have to engage with patients yes that happens now and this is an improvement and increase in support for the training the de-escalation of that but yes the support for health care workers when when incidents happen and they do happen when you bring thousands of people together in a place every day and many of them aren't at their best and are struggling so uh the the what you're going to have is people in place who will be identifiable and who will work to de-escalate those incidents and support health care workers uh hopefully before incidents occurred and as they're occurring our next question is from moira witton the tai moira go ahead good afternoon um thanks for taking my question minister why is this violent not tracked and publicly reported by government um and do you have any any plans to do so with this new announcement well um i think that if you look across the board you'll see that um it is let me just give you some statistics on violence and you you get many of these statistics in different forms about time loss claims through to violence over time through worksafe bc so from q4 2021 to q3 2022 there have been 4,438 reported incidents of violence and 721 worksafe bc time loss claims due to violence and this uh resulted in an approximate total of seven million dollars in total worksafe bc claims across the health care system but i think it's fair to say that the impact of that is um is significantly more i can't be quantified by something like seven million dollars is impact on the workplace on the individuals involved on the people that work to them on the people who are there is significantly greater than that and we hear that from health care workers so um those are some of the statistics i'm sure if you need more we'll be able to provide them why or do you have a follow-up i do thank you following up on martin's question we know through reporting by myself and colleagues that many indigenous people and people who use substances have who peacefully thought care have been removed often um been harmed by security uh from a number of emergency departments in bc specifically at royal jubilee and victoria um what kind of safeguards will there be and accountability will there be um with this new program to ensure that it's not uh increasing the disproportionate impact that security measures have on marginalized people um first of all as you know in uh july of 2020 um i asked mario and terpela fawn to do the report which became in plain sight and it's one of the outstanding reports that's ever been produced and we are acting on all its recommendations and these issues and others were cited in those reports and are the subject of very significant efforts on the part of led by in most in most if not all incidents by uh and involving indigenous people themselves so there are issues across the healthcare system with respect to um racism targeting indigenous people and those actions require significant actions across the system including in those areas including actions have been undertaken already this is not something that's taken place in isolation and in fact the implementation of that in plain sight report which is i think generally recognizes outstanding and its implementation in cooperation and in co-leadership with indigenous people is and will make a significant difference so all of these actions have to be consistent with that and they are we will now go into the room we have katherine dibb cbc radio canada you will have one question and one follow-up bonjour c'est quoi le monde d'incident pour apporter dans la dernière année et aussi en fait c'est quoi que vous annoncez aujourd'hui et pourriez vous me le chiffrer aussi effectivement on a on annonce aujourd'hui un changement de notre système de sécurité dans dans 26 lieux en colombie britannique la grande majorité sont des hôpitaux mais il y en a d'autres ces lieux ont été identifiés par nos employés par nos syndicats et par le ministre de la santé et des réjets de santé donc 26 et on a dans le dans les communiqués de presse identifiés lesquels n'est-ce pas donc on peut les voir mais je voulais faire une liste mais c'est pas je pense nécessaire deuxième main on a envers embauché dans les prochains dans la prochaine année et la prochaine année la prochaine année 320 des employés à temps plein qui vont être des employés des réjets de santé régie de santé n'est-ce pas et ça c'est important et 14 gens qui vont mêler cet effort de prévention dans nos dans nos sites dans nos hôpitaux donc on a cela troisièmement on a on a donné de l'argent à switch pc pour développer les programmes nécessaire n'est-ce pas en travaillant avec nous switch pc est dirigé à la fois par le gouvernement par work safe pc et par nos syndicats Health Sciences Association BCNU et LHU et on commence aujourd'hui c'est-à-dire que cette année cette année fiscale ça va être quatre millions de 27 17 excusez-moi 20 17 millions de dollars et ça va bien entendre augmenter l'année des années à venir quand on est en plein amplement implementation du programme donc tout ça c'est le pro c'est le programme et des éléments de le programme 26 6 300 320 nouveaux employés et nouveaux systèmes qui est dirigé et développé ensemble par switch pc en même plus quatorze c'est-à-dire qu'ils veulent s'assurer d'implanter les éléments d'amélioration et quand vous dites c'est à partir de maintenant ça veut dire que c'est à partir d'aujourd'hui qu'on va commencer le processus et la date limite c'est quoi dans un an dans un an donc à partir d'aujourd'hui dans un an et pour la première question je me demandais on sait aussi que qu'est-ce qui frustre beaucoup les les membres du personnel dans le système de santé c'est le membre c'est le manque de recrutement c'est le manque de gens pour aider donc comment vous allez agir concrètement pour assurer plus de recrutement aussi comment mais ça fait partie de ce recrutement c'est parce que il faut garder nos propres employés n'est-ce pas donc agir dans dans cette direction c'est aider nos efforts de recrutement et d'avoir assez d'employés dans le système on a on a eu quand même beaucoup de réussite depuis 3 ans dans le système santé dans le mesure où il y a 38 000 personnes de plus on perd des gens on ajoute des gens mais il y a net 38 000 personnes de plus mais il va en falloir plus n'est-ce pas continuer ces efforts donc on a ajouté des places pour nos infirmières on a créé un programme H-CAP qui a ajouté des milliers de travailleurs dans le système de santé on a des programmes des employés qui travaillent dans la science de santé la science association on a des programmes un peu partout et bien entendu nous travaillons actuellement avec nos médecins sur ces questions donc je pense que c'est tout un effort il y a sojourn des mesures qui sont nécessaires voilà aujourd'hui on parle d'une mesure essentielle mais il y en a d'autres bien entendu et on travaille à fond de livrer cette agenda oui bien entendu peut-être aujourd'hui thank you that concludes today's event thank you thank you