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Native drummers and singers joined other protesters outside the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre on Friday to demand that an indigenous woman not be held in seclusion.
As many as 50 people huddled outside the centre on a frigid morning to sign cards and letters of encouragement for Marlene Carter, who suffers from severe mental health problems and is a patient at the Brockville Mental Health Centre forensic treatment unit.
“When you feel threatened, fighting back is a form of self-defence!” one of the protesters shouted.
Carter was moved from prison to the Brockville centre, which is operated by the Royal Ottawa, after a judge ruled she was not a dangerous offender and should be in hospital. Supporters, however, say the transfer hasn’t helped her.
“One time the guards came in and she thought they were going to beat her up,” said Albert Dumont, who has been serving as Carter’s spiritual adviser. “All the cases where she fought someone she felt threatened.”
Carter’s supporters say she suffered trauma, sexual abuse and abandonment as a child, which led to aggressive actions against herself and others over the years. During prison terms in Saskatchewan and Ontario, she has been restrained to a bed and held in “periodic” isolation.
Dr. Adekunle Ahmed, associate chief of forensic psychiatry at the Royal Ottawa, said that seclusion is “rarely used,” and is only considered “when all other methods have been exhausted.” At most, he added, seclusion lasts 24 hours.
However, Dumont said that the centre uses isolation more than it should with Carter.
“Having a slit in a steel door doesn’t count as human interaction,” he said.
When he has seen improvements in Carter’s health, Dumont said it’s during a spiritual cleansing ritual, known as smudging, which allows her to speak to ancestors.
“I’ve never seen her that happy,” Dumont said. “The guards, though, haven’t let her do it for years.”
Ahmed said that Carter’s condition has “greatly improved” and the centre is working with her family to transfer her back to her home in Onion Lake Cree Nation, Sask.
“We’re all on the same page here,” he said. “We all want Marlene to succeed.”
Kim Pate, director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, said at the protest that not only should Carter be moved out of seclusion but that systems need to be put in place to help other indigenous women struggling with mental health.
“Marlene was abused at a young age, and that is when we should be intervening,” she said. “If we invested even one 10th of what we invest in the criminal justice system into communities, we would have far fewer indigenous women in jails.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has called for public education and adequate housing and health care for native communities, something that Pate remains “hopeful” that the government will see through.
Dumont said that if conditions do not change for Carter, another protest will be held in a couple of weeks.
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As many as 50 people huddled outside the centre on a frigid morning to sign cards and letters of encouragement for Marlene Carter, who suffers from severe mental health problems and is a patient at the Brockville Mental Health Centre forensic treatment unit.
“When you feel threatened, fighting back is a form of self-defence!” one of the protesters shouted.
Carter was moved from prison to the Brockville centre, which is operated by the Royal Ottawa, after a judge ruled she was not a dangerous offender and should be in hospital. Supporters, however, say the transfer hasn’t helped her.
“One time the guards came in and she thought they were going to beat her up,” said Albert Dumont, who has been serving as Carter’s spiritual adviser. “All the cases where she fought someone she felt threatened.”
Carter’s supporters say she suffered trauma, sexual abuse and abandonment as a child, which led to aggressive actions against herself and others over the years. During prison terms in Saskatchewan and Ontario, she has been restrained to a bed and held in “periodic” isolation.
Dr. Adekunle Ahmed, associate chief of forensic psychiatry at the Royal Ottawa, said that seclusion is “rarely used,” and is only considered “when all other methods have been exhausted.” At most, he added, seclusion lasts 24 hours.
However, Dumont said that the centre uses isolation more than it should with Carter.
“Having a slit in a steel door doesn’t count as human interaction,” he said.
When he has seen improvements in Carter’s health, Dumont said it’s during a spiritual cleansing ritual, known as smudging, which allows her to speak to ancestors.
“I’ve never seen her that happy,” Dumont said. “The guards, though, haven’t let her do it for years.”
Ahmed said that Carter’s condition has “greatly improved” and the centre is working with her family to transfer her back to her home in Onion Lake Cree Nation, Sask.
“We’re all on the same page here,” he said. “We all want Marlene to succeed.”
Kim Pate, director of the Elizabeth Fry Society, said at the protest that not only should Carter be moved out of seclusion but that systems need to be put in place to help other indigenous women struggling with mental health.
“Marlene was abused at a young age, and that is when we should be intervening,” she said. “If we invested even one 10th of what we invest in the criminal justice system into communities, we would have far fewer indigenous women in jails.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has called for public education and adequate housing and health care for native communities, something that Pate remains “hopeful” that the government will see through.
Dumont said that if conditions do not change for Carter, another protest will be held in a couple of weeks.
查看原文...
