Vernon Jubilee Hospital (file photo/Vernon Matters Staff)

By Pete McIntyre

new security model

New security staff on the job at Vernon Jubilee and other hospitals

Nov 17, 2023 | 2:00 PM

Vernon Jubilee Hospital (VJH) is one of 26 health care facilities in B.C. that now have specialized security officers on hand to ensure safer workplaces for health care staff.

Health Minister Adrian Dix announced on Friday that the province has fulfilled its committment to recruit 320 “relational security officers” as part of a new security model announced in 2022.

Dix said the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing toxic-drug crisis have exacerbated challenges in the health-care system, and compromised the safety of the workplace for some health-care employees and quality care of patients.

“This commitment will significantly improve the safety of our health-care facilities and help us better retain and recruit health workers, as well as care for our patients,” Dix said.

Vernon Matters has reached out to Interior Health to find out how many security officers will be used at VJH and if they will be staffed 24-7, or just at certain times.

Council grants

Vernon to distribute over $50k in Council Discretionary Grants, $20K to the food bank

17h ago

Possible firearm involved

One person apprehended in connection with suspicious activity in Coldstream

Dec 13, 2025

Fatal Collision, Highway Closed

One person dead in crash near Revelstoke

Dec 13, 2025

Dix said the new model ensures all security personnel have an acute awareness of patients and their surroundings, as well as how to anticipate, de-escalate and ultimately prevent aggression.

All protection-services personnel receive training in workplace violence prevention and mental health. They also receive trauma-informed practice training to acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and language to apply a trauma-informed perspective to interactions with patients, families, clients and colleagues.

Workplace violence is defined as incidents where staff are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work, involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or health.

The Health Ministry said for nurses and health-care assistants (both predominantly female workforces), violence was the third-most common cause of time-loss claims between Jan. 1, 2020, and Oct. 16, 2023, the first being patient handling, followed by communicable disease.

Meena Brisard, secretary-business manager of Hospital Employees’ Union, called it great news that the initiative is moving forward to improve patient and worker safety.

“Under this new security model, workers in protection services will be trained to manage tense and sometimes violent scenarios with a trauma-informed perspective to help de-escalate situations in a safe and respectful way,” Brisard said.

The Province is providing health authorities with funding to establish the relational security model in the following 26 health-care settings:

Interior Health

* Cariboo Memorial Hospital

* East Kootenay Regional Hospital

* Kelowna General Hospital

* Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital

* Penticton Regional Hospital

* Royal Inland Hospital

* Vernon Jubilee Hospital

Fraser Health

* Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre

* Burnaby Hospital

* Chilliwack General Hospital

* Delta Hospital

* Langley Memorial Hospital

* Peace Arch Hospital

* Royal Columbian Hospital

* Surrey Memorial Hospital

Island Health

* Cowichan Lodge Tertiary Mental Health Facility

* Saanich Peninsula Hospital

Northern Health

* Mills Memorial Hospital

* Prince Rupert Regional Hospital

* University Hospital of Northern British Columbia

Providence Health Care

* Mount Saint Joseph Hospital

* St. Paul’s Hospital

Provincial Health Services Authority

* BC Women’s Hospital/BC Children’s Hospital

Vancouver Coastal Health

* Lions Gate Hospital

* Richmond Hospital

* Vancouver General Hospital

The relational security model is already in place with about 100 full-time-equivalent protection services officers in seven acute and two mental-health sites in Island Health.