Province committed to providing PTSD treatment: Minister

Province committed to providing PTSD treatment: Minister

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By Antonella Artuso, Queen's Park Bureau Chief

First posted: Monday, October 13, 2014 02:56 PM EDT | Updated: Monday, October 13, 2014 03:49 PM EDT

Ontario Labour Minister Kevin Flynn (QMI AGENCY PHOTO)

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Ontario is committed to being a leader in the prevention and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in high-risk workplaces, Labour Minister Kevin Flynn says.

The labour ministry released the Roundtable on Traumatic Mental Stress last week, two days before yet another first responder committed suicide — the 25th in Canada and the 18th in Ontario since the spring.

Ontario will hold a follow-up conference in the new year with professionals who treat people with PTSD to discuss how to respond to workplace pressures faced not only emergency responders, but also nurses, doctors and subway drivers, he said.

“If we’re able to bring that all together in a very short period of time that we can give this issue the respect that it deserves,” Flynn said.

His ministry will also take a “very, very serious look” at a private member’s bill put forward for the fourth time by NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo which would require the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to presume that PTSD in a paramedic, firefighter or police officer was acquired at work, he said.

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) describes PTSD as “an anxiety disorder characterized by reliving a psychologically traumatic situation, long after any physical danger involved has passed, through flashbacks and nightmares.”

It can become so severe that people cannot live normal lives, but treatment is available to help restore balance, the CMHA says.

DiNovo said many first responders don’t even bother to apply for WSIB because they know they’ll never qualify or the process forces them to relive the trauma over and over again.

But her bill, which she introduced after the election to relieve the burden on first responders, doesn’t have a realistic chance of becoming law without government support, she said.

“The onus is on us to protect those who are protecting us when they succumb to both mental as well as physical illness,” DiNovo said. “And we’re not doing that. And I think the proof is in the suicide rate.”

A similar bill in Alberta has not led to a spike in claims or a rise in malingers, and saves money by ensuring people get early treatment and do not have to turn to public assistance, she said.

Geoff MacBride, president of the Toronto Paramedic Association, said the municipal service has a staff psychologist and a specially-trained peer support team as a resource available to those struggling with the stress, and a particularly traumatic situation such as a baby death is flagged.

DiNovo’s bill is still necessary for those first responders who go on to develop PTSD, he said.

“Right now, if a paramedic or police officer or firefighter in Ontario claims post-traumatic stress disorder as a workplace-acquired illness, they are pretty much automatically denied unless they can explicitly prove the moment where this happened,” MacBride said. “There isn’t always a moment where it happened. It’s like, ‘Prove that you didn’t get this from your divorce, prove that you didn’t get this from your childhood, prove that you didn’t get this because that patient looked at you meanly.’”

The suicides, including two Ontario police officers over the last 10 days, should be a wake up call that’s something’s wrong, he said.

Tema Conter Memorial Trust provides crucial peer and psychological support to people who work in correctional, emergency and military services who suffer from PTSD.

Paramedic Vince Savoia founded the organization after attending the murder scene of Tema Conter, murdered by a serial killer in Toronto in 1988.

Savoia said he was disappointed that the Ontario government offered another conference after the release of the roundtable report last week — a view shared by many paramedics.

The problems are well understood — overworked staff with no time to decompress, the cumulative impact of years of observing trauma up close, the lingering stigma around mental illness, he said.

Some paramedics who have come forward with their problems have been ostracized or even terminated, he added.

Many of the recommendations in the report, such as enhancing peer support and promoting greater understanding of the illness, have been proposed for the past 13 years by the Tema Conter Memorial Trust, he said.