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Annual Report of the Executive Committee
May 7, 2016 Annual General Meeting
2015/16 OCNIG Executive
Shirley Kennedy President
Evelyn Wilson Immediate Past-President
Ian Clarke Provincial Correctional Nursing Member at Large (MAL)
Laurel Fleming Federal Correctional Nursing MAL
Maggie Northrup Youth Justice Nursing MAL
Vacant Forensic Nursing MAL
Christine Bintakies Finance/Membership Executive Network Officer (ENO)
Rose Galbraith Policy and Political Action ENO
Vacant Communication ENO
Vacant Nursing Student
Finance Report
Membership Report
Membership has remained fairly stable, but needs to grow! 2014/15 – 104 2015/16 - 99
Policy and Political Action ENO Report
• Due to vacancy of the Policy and Political Action ENO position, OCNIG was unable to be involved in may of RNAO’s policy and political action events in 2014/15.
• OCNIG President Shirley Kennedy attended RNAO's Annual Queen's Park Day in February 2015 and again in February 2016. Both times Shirley had the opportunity to dialogue with Members of Provincial Parliament discussing RNAO and OCNIG priorities including the challenges faced by correctional nurses in Ontario and the health needs of our incarcerated population.
• Now that Rose Galbraith has joined the Executive, we should be able to fully participate.
Communication ENO Report
• OCNIG’s Facebook following increased from 231 in 2014/15 to 300 (currently). This following includes correctional nurses from Ontario, other provinces and the United States as well as some non-nursing correctional employees and international nurses.
• Newsletter – published quarterly, each Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
• We respond to several inquiries each month via [email protected]
• Email blasts from RNAO home office to OCNIG members created as needed.
President’s Report• In 2014-2015, the Executive Committee met 7 times. To date this
year the Executive has met 4 times.
• On December 5, 2014, in collaboration with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and the Mental Health Nursing Interest Group, OCNIG hosted a one day educational conference for correctional, forensic and mental health nurses titled Nursing in Custody.
• This conference was very well received. Feedback indicated it was very relevant to correctional nursing and a very valuable experience.
• OCNIG's professional practice profile was published on RNAO’s Careers in Nursing site. The profile can be found at website.http://careersinnursing.ca/new-nursing-andstudents/career-options/nursing-practice-profiles/correctional nursing
President’s Report (continued)
• On March 2015 – Shirley met with the Honourable YasirNaqvi, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services.
• Discussed the Ministry’s policy for transgendered inmates, the ways segregation is used and the transformation of prison health care delivery in other jurisdictions.
• The Minister displayed a willingness to discuss inmate health concerns as well as some of the challenges that correctional nurses face on a daily basis.
• The Minister was urged to further explore the integration of Ontario's prison health care into the province’s public health care system.
President’s Report (Continued)• In 2012, RNAO asked the Canadian Nurses’ Association (CNA)
to commission a discussion paper to review evidence of how international and Canadian jurisdictions have implemented transformative governance structures in provincial, territorial and federal correctional settings.
• OCNIG had hoped that this would result in research that could inform discussion about governance structures in Ontario’s provincial correctional settings.
• In 2015, CNA released their report “Supporting Registered Nurses Who Work in Canada’s Federal Prisons”. The discussion paper did not make any recommendations regarding provincial correctional settings.
President’s Report (Continued)
• In follow up to 2014 discussions with the Canadian Nurses’ Association regarding development of a national correctional nursing certification program, OCNIG learned that involvement from at least 4 provinces is required to ensure that certification meets a national need.
• After much exploration, OCNIG determined that no other province had a formalized group that represented correctional nursing.
• Without the benefit of a national task force, OCNIG is unable to progress further in this area.
President’s Report (Continued)
• November 17, 2015, Ian Clarke and Laurel Fleming presented at RNAO’s Kingston Chapter’s AGM
• December 2015/January 2016 - Worked with RNAO to create a “strike hotline”
• January 2016 – Ian Clarke participated in an MCSCS consultation on segregation review
• February 2016 - Laurel Fleming and Shirley Kennedy, presented at RNAO’s Lanark Leeds Grenville Chapter’s AGM
• March 2016 - Laurel Fleming presented to nursing students at St. Lawrence College
• March 2016 - Ian Clarke’s letter to the editor was published in the Globe and Mail
President’s Report (Continued)
• January 2016, OCNIG made a submission to “Talks Ontario” titled “Health care improvements in provincial correctional facilities”. The submission spoke to the need for improved drug rehab programming, treatment for Hepatitis C and increased capacity of mental health programming.
• March 2016, OCNIG made recommendations to the new provincial plan for policing called "Strategy for a Safer Ontario“ including how to improve interactions between the police and people with mental health and/or addiction challenges.
• April 2015 (and again yesterday), OCNIG manned an information booth at RNAO’s AGM.
President’s Report (Continued)
• April 2016 - Ian Clarke presented at the Reimagining Prison Health Conference in Toronto
• April 2016 - Shirley presented to the MCSCS/MCYS Spring Nursing Leadership Meeting
Membership Priorities
• In June 2015 OCNIG surveyed the membership to determine needs and expectations.
• 50% response rate to survey.• Two main priorities were identified:
1. Improved access and support for nursing education/professional development; and
2. Changes to the governance structure of health care delivery in correctional facilities.
Moving Forward with Priorities
1. Nursing education/professional development:• Registration information for seminars, workshops,
conferences, etc. will be included in the newsletter and posted to Facebook;
• Informative sessions included at OCNIG’s AGM;• Support for member’s attendance at AGMs and
national correctional health care conferences; • Future “Nursing in Custody” Conferences; and• Creation of a nursing education fund (in progress).
Moving Forward with Priorities (cont’d)
2. Changes to the governance structure of prison health care delivery in Ontario:
• Meeting with Minister Naqvi to discuss the current structure in Ontario and other jurisdictional governance models (March 2015);
• Collaboration with MCSCS on segregation review (January 2016);
• RNAO development of recommendations for health care transformation in prisons (March 2016); and
• Invitation to OLA and meeting with Minister Naqvi (May 2016).
http://rnao.ca/policy/submissions/trans
forming-ontarios-correctional-services-
starting-not-stopping-segregation
RNAO Recommendations to MCSCS
• Strengthen efforts to adopt effective measures to improve material conditions in prisons, reduce the current overcrowding, properly meet the basic needs of all persons deprived of their liberty and eliminate drugs;
• Increase the capacity of treatment centres for prisoners with intermediate and acute mental health issues;
• Limit the use of solitary confinement as a measure of last resort for as short a time as possible under strict supervision and with a possibility of judicial review;
• Prohibit segregation for people with "serious or acute mental illness;
• Ensure timely and appropriate mental health screening by qualified health professionals upon admission to provincial correctional facilities.
• Ensure screenings and assessments are done with adequate privacy protections.
• Abolish indefinite solitary confinement. Inmates without serious or acute mental illness must not be placed in segregation for more than 15 days at a time. There must be a wait period of at least five consecutive days between each placement in segregation. Ensure that an inmate is not placed in seclusion for more than 60 days in a calendar year. If an inmate is transferred to a different institution, the calculation of consecutive days must continue and not be considered a break from segregation or seclusion.
• Implement the recommendations by the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth arising from their systemic review of secure isolation in Ontario youth justice facilities.
• Implement justice-related recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (eliminate the overrepresentation of Aboriginal people in custody over the next decade/ annual monitoring and reporting of progress/ sufficient funding to implement and evaluate community sanctions that will provide realistic alternatives to imprisonment for Aboriginal people and respond to underlying causes of offending);s
RNAO Recommendations to MCSCS
• Implement recommendations on moving towards decriminalization of mental health issues prepared by the John Howard Society of Ontario.
• Implement recommendations from numerous coroners' inquests in a systematic and transparent fashion, including providing access to 24/7 nursing services.
• Improving access to registered nurses and nurse practitioners;• Increase capacity of primary care, mental health, and other required health services
by strengthening recruitment and retention of correctional nursing workforce by addressing compensation disparities with other sectors
• Transition governance of health services from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Ensure transparency and improvements in health equity through ongoing evaluation by Health Quality Ontario.
• Increase transparency and accountability for health and human rights for inmates in segregation and the general population within the provincial system equivalent to the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator of Canada.
What’s Next?• OCNIG will sit on RNAO’s Nursing Practice Committee for
a two year term (2016-2018);• Development of an OCNIG website (independent of
RNAO) if fiscally possible;• Scoping out an education fund for OCNIG members (will
come to membership for one member one vote);• OCNIG scheduled to present at RNAO’s Interest Group
President’s Meeting in September 2016• We will continue to work with MCSCS on prison health
transformation and correctional nursing issues.• Nursing in Custody Conference - date TBD
Contact Us
www.facebook.com/OCNIG
http://rnao.ca/connect/interest-groups/ocnig
Questions and Discussion
