Capital Health's mental health program is reviewing its policy for giving mental health patients passes to leave a hospital and spend time in the community.

The review comes after two patients committed suicide while on temporary leave from Nova Scotia Hospital in Dartmouth, the province's largest psychiatric health facility.

Dr. Ian Slayter, clinical director of general psychiatric services for the Capital Health Region, said the review is in its early stages.

"We have currently just begun a review of our pass policy," he said Thursday. "We're going to be reviewing how we assess risk, what sort of passes we give people — the whole procedure and process around that," he said Thursday.

The need for the review was identified last year when a patient on a temporary pass committed suicide, but only got underway after a young woman killed herself this summer while on a temporary pass.

"There are always judgments being made about risk, for example, on whether someone is safe," Slayter said.

"Sometimes people go out on pass and hurt themselves — suicides as an example, but not the only example. We do our best to make an assessment of risk that they're safe to go out."

He said it is a concern that needs to be balanced against the basic goal of the mental health system, which is to help people get back into the community as soon as they are able to function.

"We can't just hold them forever. When they seem safe, if someone is doing well day after day, week after week, we can't just say, 'You can't go home, we have to keep you here for a year first,' " he said. "It doesn't work like that."

Slayter said it's too soon to know whether the pass system will be tightened up, but it's likely improvements can be made.