Mental health workers press Baker to back metal detectors at DMH facilities

From State House News Service/Worcester Telegram and Gazette

By Andy Metzger, State House News Service

BOSTON — They are trained to treat those with the greatest behavioral problems, but workers at inpatient mental health facilities around the state fear they lack specific infrastructure to keep everyone physically safe and now they are asking Gov. Charlie Baker to step in.

Two officials from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees hand-delivered to the governor's staff a petition signed by more than 1,100 workers asking for the installation of metal detectors at seven facilities.

"We need his intervention," Jim Durkin, director of legislation for AFSCME Council 93, told John Tapley, the governor's constituent services director, on Friday. Durkin said metal detectors would not completely solve security challenges at the facilities but they would be an "immediate first step."

Tapley said he would make sure the governor received the request, which asks for "immediate action." The Department of Mental Health is "carefully reviewing and updating its procedures to maintain a safe workplace and treatment environment for staff, patients and visitors," a Baker spokesman said on Tuesday.

Knives and other weapons have been smuggled into DMH facilities, and a few months ago a patient used a pencil or pen to stab two workers at Taunton State Hospital, according to Joanne Cooke, president of AFSCME Local 72, who has photos of weapons found on campuses and photos of the wounds staff suffered from the attack earlier this year.
Cooke and Durkin worry that a patient prone to violence will obtain a weapon capable of seriously injuring someone at a mental health facility, posing a risk to staff, visitors and other patients.

"We can't wait any longer for this. It's only a matter of time, we believe, before a knife or a firearm falls into the hands of a patient and people are seriously injured or killed," Durkin told the News Service.

While metal detectors are a common security measure at government buildings and airports, they are rarer in health care settings. Mental Health Commissioner Joan Mikula has tasked her department with looking into the costs associated with installing metal detectors and the department is also surveying staff about their safety concerns, according to an official.

"The safety of staff, persons, and families served is one of the department's highest priorities," DMH spokeswoman Daniela Trammell said in a statement. "In order for our work to be successful, DMH must create and maintain a safe workplace and hospital treatment environment. We are assessing the department's needs to best address all patient, visitor and staff safety needs."

Health care safety concerns are not limited to DMH facilities. The Massachusetts Nurses Association is urging lawmakers to support legislation (S 1374/H 1007) that would require annual safety assessments at all health care facilities. Neither bill has passed the House or Senate this session.

On Friday DMH closed Westwood Lodge, a private hospital operated by Arbour Health Systems "due to issues concerning patient safety and quality of care," according to the department, and transferred 20 adult patients out of the facility. Westwood Lodge is not one of the DMH inpatient facilities but it is licensed by DMH.

The seven DMH inpatient facilities are Worcester Recovery Center and Hospital, Taunton State Hospital, Corrigan Mental Health Center in Fall River, Cape Cod and Islands Community Mental Health Center in Pocasset, Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center in Boston, Tewksbury Hospital and Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston, according to Durkin.

Some of those facilities use hand-held metal-detecting wands, according to the administration and the union.
Durkin said the wands are a "secondary tool" insufficient for screening all incoming visitors and patients. He claimed the administration is reluctant to install metal-detecting gates because of image concerns, which he said is "absurd."

"The only reason we can get out of them is it's an image concern," Durkin said. "They don't want their facility to have a prison-like feel. But if you go to any of these facilities, you'll see at Worcester, for example, 20-foot barbed wire fences surrounding the facilities."

Durkin said the union has been pressing for metal detectors for several years and over the past several months he has spoken about the issue with Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders, her chief of staff, Leslie Darcy, and Mikula.

Cooke said that as officials have sought to expand treatment options in the community rather than inpatient settings, the patients treated at DMH facilities are "really the sickest of the sick right now."

"Let me tell you, these are tough characters," said Cooke, who said patients have told staff they are afraid of violence.