VANCOUVER – A peer-support worker who helps youth with mental health challenges says being involuntarily detained in a psychiatric facility half a dozen times has given him insight into the lack of legal protections for vulnerable patients in British Columbia.
Rory Higgs said he first sought treatment in hospital at age 18 during a difficult time in his life, but did not know he could be kept there, medicated against his will and placed in a seclusion room.
“It was a very jarring experience. I was not really told what was going on. And I was freaking out quite a lot because it was a shock to me,” he said, adding a second psychiatrist reassessed and discharged him the following day.
B.C. is the only province where the Mental Health Act allows for so-called deemed consent to treatment.
The legislation states that anyone with involuntary status under the law is presumed to have agreed to psychiatric treatment. Family members and other advocates are also barred from challenging prescribed treatments.
Higgs, now 25, is among advocates for the mentally ill who say the law must be changed for patients who need more support in the community.
After his first detention, Higgs was held at a psychiatric facility about five more times over the next three years with a diagnoses of psychosis.
Higgs said he was never formally advised that he could apply for a review of his detention and only learned more about his right to a hearing toward the end of his hospitalizations. He felt powerless to argue against involuntary detention, even with the help of an advocate through a legal aid program for patients, he added.
A major challenge of the system is that reviews are not mandatory, Higgs said.
Unlike in Ontario, B.C. has no independent advisory agency that informs patients of their right to a lawyer.
Patients at B.C. facilities are entitled to a hearing within 14 days of their request.
But the Mental Health Review Board, which conducts the hearings, said in a recent report that it is “concerned” about the number of applications that do not proceed to a hearing.
The report found that only 37 per cent of patients who applied for a hearing had one. It said 54 per cent of scheduled proceedings did not go ahead because the patient withdrew their application, sometimes when they were discharged from hospital and placed on so-called extended leave in the community where they are connected to a mental health team.
“The number of withdrawals may or may not raise an access to justice issue,” the report said.
About a third of hearings did not proceed because patients were decertified after they requested a hearing.
“A decertification may show that treating physicians are being responsive to the needs of their patients,” the report reads. “A decertification may also indicate an abuse of process. The board would like to measure whether a patient is decertified and recertified in order to avoid a review panel hearing.”
Lisa Wong, a lawyer who sits on review board panels, said a lack of funding for legal representation through the provincially funded Mental Health Law Program is a big issue for patients who sometimes show up at hearings without an attorney.
Patients who are on extended leave in the community can also apply for a hearing, but lawyers may not be able to reach those who are living in a single-room occupancy hotel, for example, where phone messages are not always be relayed or received, she said.
Wong said applications are withdrawn in nearly half the cases when lawyers said they did not get instructions from patients, which could also mean there was no contact with the applicant. She noted no reasons have to be provided due to lawyer-client privilege.
Mental health laws across Canada allow people to be detained if they are a danger to themselves or others.
Marina Morrow, a professor at the school of health policy and management at York University in Toronto, said B.C.’s laws are “uniquely problematic” because psychiatric treatment becomes compulsory but there is no oversight of the law, which is considered discriminatory against those with a disability and no mechanism for automatic review.
However, mental health systems across the country are “crisis driven” because psychiatry and acute care are funded while many other mental health supports are not, so ending up in the emergency department before being detained becomes a route to accessing care in the community for many patients, Morrow said.
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“It makes sense to me that a psychiatrist will say ‘Go to emergency and maybe you’ll get some help that way.’ ” she said, adding patients in B.C. could be forcibly administered medications and electroconvulsive therapy.
“There’s been frustration in B.C. for many, many years, with people raising concerns about the act and really little governmental response.”
Jay Chalke, the ombudsperson in British Columbia, said in March 2019 that a month-long audit of all provincial psychiatric facilities revealed a rights-advice form that patients should have signed was not found in 51 per cent of files.
Chalke’s recommendations were accepted by the ministries of Health, Mental Health and Addictions as well as the Attorney General though Chalke, who is expected to issue a followup report in the spring, said some promised timelines for action had passed.
The ministries of Health and Mental Health and Addictions did not respond to requests for comment on whether they would consider dropping the deemed-consent aspect of the Mental Health Act.
The Health Ministry issued a statement saying it established standards last month to support compliance involving the completion of forms as well as auditing requirements to be reported on a quarterly basis.
The Attorney General’s Ministry, which committed in January 2019 to providing a mandate for an independent rights body by November of that year, said such an agency requires “research and consultation with many groups who may be impacted by the delivery of the service.”
The ministry says it has begun consultations including with experts and other provinces.
In 2016, the Council of Canadians with Disabilities and two patients who had involuntary treatment challenged the deemed-consent aspect of the Mental Health Act in B.C. Supreme Court, arguing their constitutional rights were violated under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The B.C. government stopped the case from going to trial, saying the council did not have public standing as a non-profit society. The province is now asking the Supreme Court of Canada to hear the case after the B.C. Court of Appeal issued a decision on standing.
Laura Johnston, legal director of Health Justice, said the underlying issue is that the law does not promote the dignity of patients, who are often injected with medication and placed in restraints as well as solitary confinement.
“People with mental disabilities, including mental illnesses, end up having negative experiences when they interact with our health-care system, sometimes even traumatic experiences,” she said.
She said that prevents them from accessing care or social services in the future.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 7, 2021.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
