Report warned rights of N.S. people with disabilities ‘verging’ on violation
HALIFAX — An external report warned more than a decade ago that a Nova Scotia hospital was “verging” on violating the basic rights of people with disabilities by forcing them to live in a locked-door psychiatric unit rather than in the community, a human rights inquiry heard Wednesday.
Yet, little changed for the people living at the Emerald Hall unit of the Nova Scotia Hospital, said a clinical social worker who testified at the inquiry about her effort to bring about change.
Jo-Anne Pushie, a veteran health worker who started working in the unit in 2011, said she heard of the study on the unit by Dorothy Griffiths — a Canadian expert on people with both intellectual disabilities and mental illness — and Dr. Chrissoula Stavrakaki, when she first came to the hospital as a part-time employee.
The April 2006 report on the unit’s operations was tendered as evidence at the inquiry, and Pushie read its findings, after saying other staff at the hospital were aware of its existence.