Behind every headline, there is a "people" story.
The political and financial controversies surrounding the quest to secure a new building for the Saskatchewan Hospital has been a "hard" news story covered locally and provincially for the last decade. But it's really all about people.
At a regional review held last week by the Prairie North Health Region, a number of speakers made presentations to colleagues on projects undertaken to improve patient and care provider experiences in Prairie North. Linda Shynkaruk, director of Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford, and patient representative Wade were among them.
In introducing the young man, Shynkaruk proudly shared Wade's accomplishment of being 217 days clean and sober as of that day.
"That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e doing what we鈥檙e doing," said Shynkaruk.
Wade is from Swift Current. He has bipolar disorder and has been residing at SHNB for three months.
"I was diagnosed at 17 and since then I鈥檝e had at least a dozen admissions to acute psychiatric wards 鈥� and now I鈥檓 here," said Wade. "I'm just loving it at Saskatchewan Hospital."
Drawing on a sense of humour and an obvious feeling of camaraderie with his audience, he said, "Before coming to Saskatchewan Hospital, I was scared. I was terrified! I heard how awful it was 鈥� electric shock treatment, ice baths 鈥� but, now, after being here for three months, it feels safe and happy."
About the new facility project, Wade said, "The building is one hundred years old and I think many people will benefit from having a new facility. The only thing I can see we are going to miss from the current facility? Bowling alley in the basement!" he added with a laugh.
"I don鈥檛 think we鈥檙e going to have a bowling alley in the new hospital, but that鈥檚 all right.鈥�
For Wade, SHNB has made an impact on his view of life.
"Before coming to Saskatchewan Hospital, I didn鈥檛 think there was much hope. I鈥檝e gained self confidence," he said, adding, "I feel confident there is hope for people with mental health issues."
He had praise for the nursing staff.
"Nurses are very important in the process. Without them the process would be almost nonexistent," he said. "They help the patient transition from being unhealthy to being healthy and ready for discharge."
Things to look forward to in the new facility, which is a temporary home for patients, he said, are features such as "having your own bedroom, not sharing it with other patients," and technology such as Wi-Fi that will allow patients to have access to communication with parents and family.
The review where he was speaking was one that highlighted the region's use of RPIWs, an acronym for rapid process improvement workshops. As a patient, Wade was recently able to take part in one of those workshops, focusing on the cafeteria at SHNB. He enjoyed the process and was impressed by the immediate improvements that came out of the workshop.
"It was tangible," he said. "All of a sudden you could see the change 鈥� by the end of the week, after all our changes and our ideas, it was awesome to see the change."
Wade concluded his presentation by saying, "I鈥檓 looking forward to the next couple months here at Saskatchewan Hospital. There鈥檚 a chance I will be getting out in February, which would be awesome, not because I don鈥檛 want to stay, there are just some issues back home I have to deal with, but other than that, thanks for letting me speak."
He earned a thunderous round of applause from the Prairie North audience.
Shynkaruk shared a look at how the process of getting a new building has impacted patients and caregivers at SHNB, particularly the curveball of finding out the new facility would include a correctional component.
"My initial thoughts went to our current patients," she said. "I didn鈥檛 want them to be restricted in their movement with all these 'inmates' on the grounds. I didn鈥檛 want to build a facility that looked like a correctional facility. I thought, 'how are our vulnerable patients who are there right now going to mix with these criminals?'"
She went to her team with the idea of working with the Ministry of Justice, Corrections and Policing to plan a 284-bed mental health facility, made up of 188 non-secure beds and 96 secure beds.
"We talked about it, and eventually we embraced that idea and we realized we ourselves were stigmatizing those individuals who were sitting in the jails who have mental health issues, who could use our help, who could access our services and use our services," said Shynkaruk.
"We embraced the idea and realized that was the absolute right thing to do," she said, explaining at least 20 per cent of the people in Saskatchewan's correctional facilities require intense psychiatric treatment.
"We need to advocate for those individuals 鈥� as well as our own patients in the current facility.
She and her team went so far as to propose the facility be a one-operator model. It should be operated under health, they said, rather than 188 beds being under health and the 96 beds being under corrections with Prairie North contracting their services for the secure beds. That was the original idea, she added.
"The question became, 'Do we want a mental health facility with the flavour of corrections or do we want a correctional facility with the flavour of mental health?'"
The first was the definitely the answer to the team.
Getting the environment right for the new facility has been integral to the planning process.
"We鈥檝e been planning a facility that will have a therapeutic home-like environment, individual rooms, one bathroom shared between two patients instead of one bathroom being shared by 10 or 12 patients like they do now," said Shynkaruk. "We want lots of natural light and good temperature control. These are the priorities for our patients."
These priorities have been expressed by the patients themselves, as they have been included in the planning process.
"These are the priorities that they鈥檝e told us they want in the new facility, and we learned that through several meetings with the patients, through surveys and having them participate in the three 3P events that were held pretty well where you are now," she told the audience.
(The Production-Preparation-Process events were part of a Lean exercise in which staff and patents worked on design ideas for the new hospital, creating models and life-size mockups of some of the rooms. The events took place in the Prairie North Health Region warehouse-style facility on Marquis Avenue where the review was being held.)
The new facility is being built as a P3 (public-private partnership) project. Shynkaruk said patients and staff were involved in design discussions with the three proponents interested in the project prior to the successful proponent, Access Prairies Partnership, being chosen. They continue to be involved in a "back and forth" consultation process now construction has begun.
"We began meeting with them in August and we established a number of user groups," said Shynkaruk. "Those user groups were inclusive of front line staff and patients."
The journey to breaking the ground for the hospital has been years in the making and something of a rollercoaster ride for staff and patients.
"I remember back in 2006 when the first announcement was made," said Shynkaruk. "The NDP at that time had announced we were getting a new hospital. I had a patient buddy who came into my office the next day and said, 'Linda, I鈥檓 not moving to the new hospital.鈥�"
Every day for months he came to her to say he wouldn't move, while the staff tried to impress upon him all the positive things that would happen.
"Finally one day he approached me and said, 'OK, you know what? I鈥檒l move if I get a room with a view of the river,' so I said, 鈥極K.鈥� I was pretty sure I could get him that."
But the hospital didn't go ahead at that time.
"Then things died," said Shynkaruk. "There was not a lot of talk about the new building. Things kind of seemed to be on hold, and patients stopped asking us about where we were at."
Finally, hope was renewed again with another announcement.
"Once again, [my] buddy said he was really reluctant to move, so we were back to square one."
But he's come around finally.
"Last Friday afternoon I was leaving and he came up to me and he said, 'This new hospital, we are really getting get it, eh?' and I said, 'Yes, we are.' He said, 'OK, I鈥檒l move, but I鈥檓 packing my own stuff and I鈥檓 moving my own stuff,' and I said, 'You got it!鈥�"
She laughed, "Everybody is coming along with us now."
