The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is in court today and may have to pay four and a half million dollars in fines.

The centre has been charged with violating the Occupational Health and Safety Act for failing to make their work environment safer. In total, there were nine charges laid by the Ontario Ministry of Labour for failure to develop and implement violence-prevention procedures, as well as failure to protect workers.

If convicted, CAMH may be fined up to $500,000 per offence.

CAMH was ordered to improve workplace safety after two violent incidents occurred last year.

On November 12, 2007, a patient jumped over a Dutch door (which splits in half horizontally), entered a nursing station and attacked two female nurses, leaving one with a broken shoulder.

Five days later, a patient entered a nursing station and broke a male nurse’s jaw. Security staff didn’t have keys and a panic button was not working.

The Ontario Nurses’ Association, which represents 569 registered nurses at CAMH, claims violence at CAMH continued, with 23 attacks before the year’s end.

“In ONA’s opinion, not enough is being done to keep nurses safe on the job,” said ONA president Linda Haslam-Stroud.

U of T runs several research, clinical, and outreach partnerships with CAMH. U of T’s department of Psychology works closely with the cetre, often running programs out of CAMH.

The incidents have sparked controversy and debate about mental health issues.

Last month, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, representing non-nursing staff at CAMH, commenced a campaign of bus shelter ads. The ads, which have since been removed after complaints that it stigmatized patients, featured a woman with a bruised eye and the text: “No more excuses. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health must protect its staff from violence. It’s the law.”

“Hospital workers deserve no less than a safe job environment,” OPSEU president Smokey Thomas said in a statement. “I don’t regret for a moment that ads were placed.”

“Nurses do face workplace hazards more serious than in many other professions,” said Haslam-Stroud, pointing to a CBC investigation which found nurses more likely to be assaulted and injured on the job than police officers and firefighters.

Eric Preston, vice-president of human resources at CAMH, told the media that CAMH had implemented a workplace violence prevention strategy and trained staff in time for a deadline this February.

“We have a lot of processes and training in place to make things as safe as possible,” Preston told the CBC. “Can we do better? Certainly. Can we do more? Definitely. Will we be doing more? Absolutely.”

ONA told The Varsity that although CAMH does have a violence prevention policy, it lacks such a program. This would entail in-depth risk assessments, routine equipment assessments and training staff.

While the ONA applauded the charges laid by the Ontario Ministry of Labour, many are critical of the charges which, if implemented, will affect an agency that funds research on mental health issues. Others wonder how much potential charges may affect funding for security and safety programs.