Last night you heard from Jules Vasquez on the tragic death of his brother, Nestor Vasquez Jr. As we told you, Vasquez, who is mentally ill, was in police custody at the Queen Street police station on Thursday afternoon. Officers put him in a cell with Colin Francis, another mentally ill patient who had been charged for attempted murder after stabbing psychiatric nurse Augustina Elijio to the chest. Francis then attacked Vasquez, that beat down led to his death. Today Nurse Eleanor Bennett from the Mental Health Unit spoke on both cases specifically on nurse Elijio's. She said that health workers are at risk when they handle patients such as Francis who display violent behavior.
Eleanor Bennett, Head of the Mental Health Unit
"One behalf of my unit and I am sure I am speaking for the Ministry of Health when we express our sincere condolences to the Vasquez family. I know that is a tragic loss and especially considering the circumstances and we are also standing in solidarity with nurse Elijio, she is one of ours, which makes it really close to home but I must say that we treat a lot of people will metal health conditions from time to time we get a Colin Francis, it doesn't happen often but it does happen but not only in mental health, in health in general, once you provide services to the public and you are in close contact with the public, health care providers are constantly under attack or constantly abused so it is not just a mental health problem, it is an issue of safety for all health care workers and the issue for the public to be respectful of health care works who are pretty much trying to give a service."
"But for us we have review our procedures to make our environment safer."
Bennett did say that fortunately, there are only a few cases where patients display such violent behavior towards health care professionals.
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