The following was provided to us by OPSEU/SEFPO Correctional Bargaining Unit:

For more than a decade, the OPSEU/SEFPO Correctional Bargaining Unit has advocated for meaningful mental health supports and timely access to treatment for our members. These calls for action were not abstract—they were grounded in lived experience from the growing mental health crisis being experienced by our members across the province.

Our concerns became more urgent in 2023, when we lost several members to suicide in rapid succession. Despite these devastating losses, significant barriers to accessing mental health treatment remained firmly in place for our members.

In the wake of these tragedies, we began systematically tracking deaths by suicide among our members. The resulting data was alarming. It was a clear indictment of a system that continued to place correctional workers at risk while failing to provide adequate, accessible, and timely mental health care.

Determined to ensure these losses were not forgotten, ignored, or in vain, we sought out allies to highlight and elevate the urgent need for a comprehensive suicide prevention strategy and robust mental health supports for all correctional workers. We express sincere gratitude to those organizations that immediately answered our calls and sought to implement much needed supports and services for our members. Know that your actions have made a difference and have saved lives.

However, we remain profoundly disappointed with those that have the power to enact systemic changes. Their unwillingness to acknowledge the mental health crisis and failure to remove barriers to mental health treatment, has left our members shouldering the psychological toll of correctional work alone.

We are indebted to Dr. Reuven Jhirad and Rose Jumarang of the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario for taking these deaths seriously and for their commitment to this review. Their leadership stands in stark contrast to the unwillingness shown elsewhere and represents a critical step toward accountability and prevention.

There is no longer any justification for delay, deflection, or denial. The mental health of correctional workers must be a priority for the Ministry of the Solicitor General and the Province of Ontario—not in words, but through concrete, fully funded actions. Anything less represents a continued failure of duty to correctional workers who work every day to keep Ontarians safe. The recommendations in this review demand immediate implementation and further inaction risks the preventable loss of life.