HSC crisis response centre desperately understaffed amid surge in patients: union

A mental-health crisis centre in Winnipeg is “dangerously” understaffed and failing to keep pace with a surge in walk-in patients, a union that represents some employees told the Free Press.

The Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals filed a grievance that accuses Shared Health, which operates the Crisis Response Centre, of violating union members’ contract terms.

“It is a crisis for the staff there. They are burnt out,” union president Jason Linklater said. “The work that crisis clinicians do is very important to them. If it doesn’t improve, (the situation) is only going to get worse because people will leave.”

The union represents about 70 employees at the centre, including crisis clinicians, brief treatment counsellors, mental-health specialists, case managers and co-ordinators.

Linklater said reports from front-line employees indicate baseline staffing levels are critically low at the crisis centre — a 24-7 facility on the Health Sciences Centre campus — after a 20 per cent increase in walk-in visits involving adults in crisis.

Shared Health’s 2023-24 annual report said the crisis centre had 7,831 walk-in visits, up from 7,390 and 6,525 in the two previous fiscal years. The 2024-25 report has not yet been published.

“The crisis response centre wasn’t designed to handle that huge influx of people,” Linklater said.

Linklater said a recent schedule showed about 20 unfilled shifts per week, with only one clinician scheduled on some overnight shifts despite a baseline of four.

“The crisis response centre wasn’t designed to handle that huge influx of people.”

He said involuntary double shifts of up to 16 hours, with a return to work eight hours later, occur to fill gaps. He said mandated overtime is not permitted in the current contract unless Shared Health declares a state of emergency for the site, which it has not done.

The union reported an increase in sick leave among its members at the Bannatyne Avenue facility. Linklater said chronic understaffing has extended assessment and treatment wait times for clients.

In an email, an unnamed Shared Health spokesperson said the safety and well-being of staff and clients are a priority. They said all MAHCP positions at the crisis centre were filled as of Friday.

The spokesperson said Shared Health is actively hiring for walk-in services at the crisis centre, and for newly funded positions to re-establish a mobile crisis service.

A new staff rotation model that is more balanced and equitable will be rolled out, they said.

While most shifts are picked up by MAHCP members before being offered more broadly, “infrequent staffing gaps” may result in mandating, but the instances are rare, the spokesperson said.

While all positions may be filled, the baseline staffing level is not sufficient and needs to be increased, Linklater said.

In a statement provided by a spokeswoman, Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith said the province increased funding to the crisis centre last month to hire more staff, including clinicians.

She said 25 mental-health workers have been hired for sites in Manitoba in the last year as part of the government’s plan to hire 100 over four years.

Smith said there is more work to do, and supporting front-line staff is a top priority for the government.

Some clients have walked away while waiting at the crisis centre. A notable example was Trevor Farley, then 37, who killed his parents and stabbed a Seven Oaks General Hospital nursing supervisor after leaving the facility in 2021, despite being on an involuntary hold.

MAHCP said the facility still doesn’t have locked isolation rooms.

In May 2024, sources told the Free Press that crisis centre staff pleaded with Shared Health to hire more employees and increase security, following assaults against staff and self-harm among some clients. Working conditions are still unsatisfactory, Linklater said.

The facility now has an artificial intelligence weapon scanner. The technology is not foolproof, Linklater said. Institutional safety officers work across HSC’s campus, including the crisis centre.

MAHCP filed a grievance earlier this year alleging overtime is mandated contrary to employees’ contract, shifts are changed without fair notice, and Shared Health failed to maintain a safe and adequately staffed working environment.

The grievance is separate to a complaint MAHCP filed with Manitoba Workplace Safety and Health.

“At what point is staffing a workplace health and safety violation in and of itself, when you put people into situations where, simply by putting too few, you’ve increased their risk to a level where something bad can happen?” Linklater said. “It’s not just (the crisis centre). We see this across the system”

On a recent night shift, the centre had 15 clients, including four classified as high risk, with two clinicians working — one who was scheduled and a second who was on overtime, Linklater said.

“That (second) person had already been working and had extra long hours in place already. They were suffering from severe fatigue,” he said. “Among that type of chaos… it exacerbates that untenable workload for crisis clinicians.”

He said Shared Health recently issued a callout after MAHCP urged the health authority to ask clinicians at other sites to cover vacant shifts at the crisis centre. It is not a permanent solution, he noted.

“What we want to see is the employer take the responsibility to protect staff from unsafe practices, and ensure their employees can provide the clients safe, sustainable care,” Linklater said.

chris.kitching@freepress.mb.ca