Emergency

Emergency is a three-part series about care and chaos in the St. Joseph’s Healthcare emergency department in Hamilton’s core: the patients who come to this eye in the storm of the mental health, homelessness and addiction crisis, and those who work here, observed over the course of 40 hours in five days.

Part 1: Rage, sorrow and ‘hope and light’

Part 2 Thursday: ‘Manic season’ in Hamilton’s busiest emergency department

Part 3 Friday: Emergency staff at St. Joe’s is like ‘family’ to homeless patients

“Suicidal tendencies. Exponential breakdowns.”

The patient is talking about himself.

He answers a doctor’s questions about his state of mind and why he is in the St. Joe’s psychiatric emergency services unit, or PES (pronounced pez by staff), a specialized unit in the emer

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