N.B. health network apologizes for using seclusion rooms and physical restraints at psychiatric facility

New Brunswick ombudsperson Marie-France Pelletier found staff made decisions to use restraints at Restigouche hospital without adequate medical consultation or authorization.

New Brunswick’s francophone health network is expressing remorse for the way its staff used restraints and seclusion rooms at an adult psychiatric facility in the province’s north.

Sébastien Lagacé, associate vice-president of mental health and addiction at Vitalité Health Network, made the comments in the wake of a scathing report by the provincial ombudswoman, Marie-France Pelletier. The report described troubling details about how some patients were treated at the Restigouche Health Centre in northern New Brunswick.

In some cases, the report said patients were restrained for hours, at times in their own urine an