Correctional officers plead for federal help including national treatment centre

OTTAWA — Prison staff suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder need a national treatment centre to help them, the union representing Canada’s correctional officers said Tuesday as it urged the federal government to step up support.

Jason Godin, the national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said his members are “forgotten-about first responders” whose ongoing mental health is vital to Ottawa.

“I think that’s part of what we are trying to do is explain to people ‘Look, we are that forgotten-about, out-of-sight, out-of-mind group’,” Godin, a correctional officer since 1992, told a news conference.

“Given the numbers we have in terms of PTSD, we can’t be forgotten-about anymore.”

Joanne Rutley, who works at the maximum-security Millhaven Institution in Bath, Ont., said her diagnosis of PTSD led her to take a leave from her job in May. She has yet to return.

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Rutley, 42, said she has been involved in a number of serious incidents, including a fatal shooting in 2011, leaving her with nightmares and flashbacks.

She also believes correctional offers are left to fend for themselves.

“We take an oath that … what we say or what happens behinds the walls, we can’t discuss,” she said. “When someone commits a crime they go away … but what’s forgotten are the people inside, us, who manage these inmates.”

Last fall, the House of Commons public safety committee reported that as many as 35 per cent of first responders — from paramedics to prison guards — will develop symptoms of PTSD as a result of their jobs.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Tuesday his department is working with Health Canada to develop a national plan on post-traumatic stress injuries to support public safety offers. 

The broad definition includes correctional officers.

The government is also committed to working with provinces, territories, first responders and other stakeholders to address post-traumatic stress injuries and the significant impact they have on first responders, said press secretary Scott Bardsley.

Godin said more federal help can’t come soon enough.

“The sooner that we treat correctional officers or any first responders and have treatment programs set up and the funding there to do that, the sooner those individuals can get back to work,” he said.

“For us, the cost-savings for the government will come later.”

—Follow @kkirkup on Twitter

Kristy Kirkup, The Canadian Press