Penticton's Unity House cleared of wrongdoing in firing employee

The Canadian Mental Health Association has been cleared of wrongdoing in firing an employee of Unity House in Penticton largely for inappropriate relationships with clients.

The employee, to be referred to as D.B., was terminated from her position in September 2017, according to a B.C. Labour Board ruling posted online. The ruling comes at the end of a dispute between the employee’s union, the B.C. Hospital Employees’ Union and the Canadian Mental Health Association South Okanagan Similkameen Branch.

D.B. gained employment at Unity House as a program co-ordinator in January 2010, and an employee review the following month praised her for “her commitment to members” and being “a pleasure to work with.”

“She excels in relationships with the members and has created an environment in which members feel safe and have increased opportunities to be involved in the clubhouse,” reads the report, which was cited in the ruling.

Unity House’s executive director at the time, Dennis Tottenham, had assumed D.B. “with her work experience and education was aware of the need to maintain boundaries with clients,” B.C. Labour Board arbitrator James Dorsey wrote in his decision.

“(Tottenham) had concerns about her judgment when she hugged an applicant at a hiring interview, and it was reported by the fire marshall that she had hugged members during a clubhouse fire drill when she should have been ensuring they evacuated,” the ruling reads.

The ruling goes on to list several matters of breaches of professional boundaries with clients between 2010 and 2017. That included paying clients to help her move, regular movie nights at home with a client and taking clients on a fishing excursion.

“Tottenham testified it is never acceptable to socialize with clients outside work and she did not tell him about the (fishing) outing,” Dorsey wrote.

Between 2013 and 2015, D.B. entered into a romantic and sexual relationship with a man only identified as C.M., who lived at the Mayfair Motel next door to Unity House.

The matter became more complicated when C.M. was referred to Unity House for help with bipolar disorder, and complaints arose regarding the amount of time C.M. spent in her office. D.B. continued to assert C.M. was not a clubhouse member.

D.B. later entered into a relationship with a Skaha Sunrise resident, referred to as C.B., who was able to attend Unity House without a mental health diagnosis due to an agreement between B.C. Housing and the CMHA. The nature of that relationship is unclear, but clubhouse members had been overheard implying a sexual relationship.

D.B. had also picked up C.B.’s medications for him, writing his name on the delivery documents, and he had stayed at her house on occasions.

Unity House entered into an investigation into D.B.’s apparent lack of boundaries, and she was directed not to contact clients or other Unity House employees, per the union’s collective agreement.

However, on two occasions, D.B. was found to have violated that part of the agreement and was suspended without pay and reminded not to contact employees or clients.

D.B. later returned to the office for a binder and an employee manual, returning the following day for a binder. Those materials were later returned.

Three days later, D.B. was handed a letter of dismissal. She was told a report had been filed with police that she had forged a client’s signature on a medical delivery document when picking up C.B.’s medications and stole company property, being the manuals she had taken in the days previous.

Dorsey wrote of the importance for mental health professionals to maintain boundaries with clients, and said D.B. “failed over an extended period in many ways.”

“Despite all that has happened, (D.B.) still does not accept she had no license to behave differently or to have a different relationship with D.B. than other clients. Regrettably, her compassion or need to give to … clients continues to cloud her judgement about the role.”