IceStorm 98 Study

Ms. Jones is the Clinical Nurse Specialist at Kingston Psychiatric Hospital and editor of the hospital’s report on the Ice Storm.

Ms. Jones recalls that on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 7th the hospital reception-ist was cautioning people about the coming storm as they left for the day. On her way back to the hospital at around 6:00 p.m., Ms. Jones had to scrape ice from her car windshield three times during the short drive from her home. When she drove home at 8:00 p.m. she was convinced that this storm was a major event.

Still, she was confident that power would be maintained by the back-up generator at the Kingston Psychiatric Hospital and that if power was lost at her home downtown, it would only be for a short while because the storm was waning. She awoke on Thursday morning to find that electrical power had not been restored at home. It was with a sense of adventure that she decided to get in to work by whatever route was available. She recalled that the Tim Horton’s (Doughnut Shop) at Princess and McDonnell was still open.

When she reached KPH, instead of commencing her normal work, she reported to the central nursing office and offered to help in patient care, which is not part of her normal job but for which she does have the skills. She spent a couple of hours in the geriatric ward feeding and watching the television news with patients, telling them “It’s not a very nice day to go outside. I think we better stay in.” At 9:00 she went to her office where “business was normal”.

Ms. Jones said that it was critical that the administrator did not call an internal disaster because by not doing so, options were kept open for people to do what was necessary and not just what was prescribed.

The next day, Friday January 9th, Ms. Jones worked with the area nursing coordinator’s office for a regular shift then on through midnight in order to double-staff the area coordinators’ position, one to tend to hospital care and one to hostel care. She then went home to tend to personal concerns and did not return to KPH until Monday.

The staff of Penrose shelter had worked “around the clock” over the weekend and by Monday needed to be relieved. Ms. Jones joined Paul Miller and Ian Irving on the administrative team and worked the night shift for the rest of the week. The team decided amongst themselves about shifts. They agreed that the one who started on days should continue on days in order to facilitate both internal and external communication. Miller and Irving also both have community-based experience and so were familiar with the Community Care Access Centre and its services. (This was important since a number of the CCAC’s regular clients were now guests of the Penrose shelter.)

Because she was the person working nights, it was decided that Jones would start the Penrose shelter report. She was later asked to write the overall report on KPH’s response to the ice storm. She agreed to edit it as a compilation of “departmental operational reports” with spreadsheets for: 1) guest beds per night, 2) additional hours of work by department and 3) spending accountable to ice storm activities.

According to Ms. Jones, Brockville Psychiatric Hospital implemented their emergency plan. This demanded that staff be called in according to a fan-out for available staff. By contrast, KPH decided that staff would not be called in to work. Efforts were made to have those who lived in areas affected by the storm and who did come in to work, sent home in sufficient time that they would reach home in daylight. Many others who live west of the affected area had warm, lighted homes to return to each night and came in refreshed the next day. Unlike Brockville, KPH had sufficient staff to maintain the hospital and relief operations. Moreover, people discarded their job titles and role descriptions and did what needed to be done.

By Monday, January 12th, business had pretty well returned to normal at the main building (Westwood). The “bonus of the second wave” of staff who returned to work on Monday, was that “they had been able to look after their own personal disasters.” They now had the energy and an urge to contribute.

“ It (the crisis) gave us something to focus on that wasn’t related to other things: workplace anxiety, the role of the facility or the role of my program or the bed cutbacks or the reassignment of tasks. It was something concrete to focus on and we could all work together. The sense of camaraderie among five hundred staff was really quite amazing.” (And has that been sustained?) “Yes. I think you can still go down the hallway and people will smile and call you by name, as they always have, and now you know that they know another piece of trivia about you.” Little things like “ I believe in living a fully caffeinated existence.” The night Commissionaires would call over from the main building and say “We’re going over to Tim’s (Tim Horton’s). Is there anything that we can pick up for you? When they got there they would deliver enough coffee for everybody.” KPH retirees came to the public shelter to see old friends and to reminisce.
The Seeley’s Bay nursing home needed to have alternate shelter well into the week of January 18th. The Beechgrove shelter under Malcolm McFarlane, Dennis Tysick and Susan Lewis stayed operational until January 21st. They had a sense of isolation, as the rest of the hospital returned to normal on the week of January 15th.

“Do what you think you need to do.” was stated again and again. And people responded by doing what they could. Practical things like circulating videos to all units and shelters, recreational services held an evening social/dance with in-patients, out-patients and hostel residents all socializing. A sense of community was important given the duration of the storm.

There was a sense of extended family from noon, Thursday January 8th when 75 chronically mentally ill residents and some staff from Kingston Friendship Homes were welcomed to KPH with lunch served family style in the cafeteria on a half-hour’s notice. KPH nursing staff assisted in feeding the Friendship Homes residents and provided relief for their staff. From Thursday through the weekend, KPH staff commented that “The hallways were busy again. The noise level is up. Isn’t it great!” Food services geared up to meet the sharply increasing need for meals, which they served family-style instead of on individual trays.

Additional beds were set up in nine of eleven inpatient units. Because they had the space, KPH made the conscious decision to offer the beds to people who they had placed in the community. These former in-patients knew the staff and at least some of the patients. “For them, there was a sense of old home week and they were able to share their stories with people they knew.”

In responding to a question about problems faced in running the hostels, Ms. Jones said that there were no problems but rather “glitches”. Things like refurbishing plumbing unused for two years and replacing ballasts in lighting meant getting a “mothballed” building into service took longer than anticipated. Not knowing who was where and how many people there were caused some concern. By Monday, this was resolved when the Red Cross brought their registration forms and spreadsheet program with a battery-powered computer. (Using the communication resources available at CFB Kingston and retired signals regiment personnel in HAM radio operations would be a way to overcome inter-site communication difficulties in the future.) Finally, the regional laundry did not supply fresh sheets to BPH on Thursday, as the manager would not have the drivers risk the treacherous driving conditions. Delivery would wait for the next day.

The Ontario Hospital Association meeting of April 2nd, 1998, in Smiths Falls recognized the importance of stand-alone/self-sufficient facilities for community security. A copy of an article on what was learned from Hurricane Andrew about the health needs of the debilitated elderly, has been submitted to the Ice Storm Study. While it reflects a different season and place, the response framework does relate. To this Ms. Jones noted that, in addition to heat and electricity, KPH also has the capacity to draw its own water and handle its own sewage. She recalled that the generator was started up at 10:30 p.m. Wednesday January 7th and remained on through the first part of the next week.

Media praise for the work of KPH’s role during the ice storm continued into February. Another example of appreciation was a handwritten invitation to the Valentines party at Kingston Friendship Homes. Malcolm McFarlane attended on behalf of KPH.

Space and privacy was an important feature of the Penrose shelter. It provided private space for couples and families and play space for children. There were also interview rooms for meetings with such agencies as Family and Community Services.

To address the stressful effects of the Ice Storm, KPH has held activities to celebrate and bring closure to the experience. Critical incident or stress debriefing has been offered by the psychology department. The employee assistance program is another resource. Raymond Lafond of Health Canada has conducted debriefings attended by KPH staff. The additional hours expended by each department has been recognized and is a source of pride for KPH staff. Ultimately, in a caring facility, people continue to listen to each other and empathize.

Health Canada Framework for Resolution after Critical Events (Raymond Lafond) provides a good social/developmental framework for dealing with critical events.

Given that some people have had their personal emergencies, they had to tend to it and may not have had anything left to give to others. Their experience is no less remarkable.