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Rehabilitation Services at the Ontario Regional Treatment Centre

Skills for the Job of Living

The Ontario Regional Treatment Centre RTC(O) offers a variety of innovative rehabilitation services, all designed to help offenders with mental disorders by teaching them a marketable skill or providing them with a meaningful activity. In the process, they also learn many of the essential "skills for the job of living," like following instructions, getting along with others and self-discipline. Rehabilitation services like the ones profiled here, give these offenders hope for a future beyond the prison walls - a future in which they may safely return to the community and become a contributing member.

Old Blue Jeans Heal, Restore

Inmates find self-worth and
a way to give back

By The Free Spirit Affirmative Business Associates and Tracey Davidson, Occupational Therapist, RTC(O) and Chaplain Fergy Wilson, RTC(O)

Rocco models a dog jacket made by Free Spirit. The olive-green apparel is crafted out of recycled correctional officer jackets.
Photo: Mark Hauser

They're federal offenders. They have mental illnesses. They serve long or even indeterminate sentences. But they're producing beautiful, saleable, practical items. They make their creations out of old stuff. It's hard to imagine their sturdy, attractive and fashionable tote bags or dog jackets began as blue jeans or guards' uniforms headed for the landfill.

The Free Spirit Affirmative Business at the Ontario Regional Treatment Centre fosters recovery from mental illness. It combats stigma and helps its 14 workers be a part of the community.

The workers, or Business Associates, named it "Free Spirit" themselves. They're proud of their handiwork, which is sold locally. Every two months, 60 percent of the profits go into the men's personal accounts, according to the number of hours they have worked. Of the rest, 25 percent buys equipment and raw materials and 15 percent is kept for emergency business expenses. The associates donate 15 percent of their profits or items "in kind" to charitable organizations such as the United Way.

After eight years of operation, the business associates say Free Spirit is successful because of its simple structure, its philosophy of consensus and its democracy. They also like the challenge of "making something from nothing." In their own words:

From left to right: Dave Farnsworth, Psychologist; Tracey Davidson, Occupational Therapist; Chaplain Fergy Wilson; Kim Bennett, Behavioural Technologist; Danny Offord, Job Coach-Housekeeping Services; and Donna Stickles, Behavioural Technologist

• "I learn a lot from others. There is a sense of mutual respect."
• "I like coming to work. It has helped me develop a healthy routine."
• "You acquire wisdom, faith, understanding and discipline."
• "Working gives you a sense of belonging to something."
• "The business gives me hope for a better future."
• "The business gave me new ideas to start making chemo-wraps for cancer patients on a voluntary basis. I've learned independence which I will use to start my own business."

Tracey Davidson, a registered occupational therapist, helps each associate obtain productive, meaningful employment through ongoing assessment, employment support and workplace accommodations. Chaplain Fergy Wilson assists through creative community marketing.

A version of this article first appeared in the Anglican Diocese of Ontario publication Dialogue, January 2007. ♦

Job Coaching Program

Danny Offord, Job Coach-Housekeeping Services and Dave Farnsworth, Psychologist, RTC(O)

Job coaching at the Ontario Regional Treatment Centre is a cleaning program, designed to teach industry standards for a hospital setting. The result is a cleaner, healthier environment for inmates, staff and visitors. The goal is rehabilitation through meaningful work. Vocational therapy is one facet of the patient's treatment plan, complemented by counseling, medication and correctional programming.

Danny Offord, Job Coach-Housekeeping Services

The cleaning program was created in 1999 by Occupational Therapist Tracey Davidson and Psychologist Dave Farnsworth. It remains part of the Psychology Department, offering supported employment to inmates with severe and persistent mental disorders, emotional concerns, learning disabilities and little or no previous work history. To quote a former parole officer: "It motivates inmates who spend most of their day sitting on the window sill or sleeping to do something constructive."

Job coach duties include supervising the worksite, scheduling work detail, obtaining equipment and providing cleaning and sanitizing services for restricted areas. The coach works alongside inmate-patients, offering encouragement, role modeling and feedback. Evaluations are also shared with the multidisciplinary team — medical staff, psychologists, parole officers, case workers and the National Parole Board. ♦

Results

In 2002, five program participants were released. Of these, three are still employed. Currently, the following has been achieved:

• five participants have successfully completed the 72-hour Cleaning Program. Of these, two are employed full-time as cleaners;
• 13 have completed Health and Safety training and shown their ability to use it;
• 13 have completed training towards the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information Systems (WHMIS) certification;
• 12 have completed training on industry-accepted cleaning procedures for Biohazard and Blood-borne Pathogens;
• five have received additional training in Industrial Cleaning Procedures for a hospital environment and the correct use of cleaning chemicals and equipment;
• three have been trained in writing cover letters and resumes.

The benefits are evident in the following comments by participants:

• "When I am working I don't hear the voices."
• "Working has helped me develop people skills. I am less argumentative with others."
• "The program has increased my sense of knowledge and safety."
• "It adds structure to my day."
• "Working got me motivated. I don't feel as depressed when I'm working. People need to work." ♦

Kitchen Worker Program

By Kim Bennett, Behavioural Technologist, RTC(O)

The Kitchen Worker Program began in 2005, when Kingston Penitentiary (KP) staff approached the Ontario Regional Treatment Centre RTC(O) to see if patients could take on the job of putting together bags of condiments and cutlery for their Segregation Unit and the Acute Range. The bags are needed for kitchen staff to serve meals to the offender population. RTC(O) agreed and two behavioural technologists adopted the project.

The program runs three half-days a week and can employ five to six patients per session. The group works in assembly line fashion with each person doing a specific job. In one section, four patients put together bags containing a day's worth of cutlery and condiments for KP and RTC(O) units. During each session, patients can complete two days worth of bags, or 420 sets. The other section puts together the weekend cutlery-condiment bags for the entire offender population at KP.

Kim Bennett and Donna Stickles, Behavioural Technologists supervise RTC(O) patients who assemble hundreds of condiment and cutlery bags for the Kingston Penitentiary kitchen every week.

In contrast to other programs, participants do not lose pay if they are unable to work due to mental health problems. Casual workers can be called in at the last minute if a participant is not feeling well. When he is ready, he returns to the program.

Patients who suffer from a major mental illness find the program a welcome distraction that gives them something to do outside their unit. One man said that when he is working in the group, he seems to "get a break" from the voices he hears.

Since 2005, 23 patients have been involved in the program. It is highly successful in terms of offering meaningful and productive work to offenders who are unable to do other jobs and in meeting a constant need of the KP kitchen. ♦