58 per cent of all patients receiving involuntary care in B.C. have access to key legal safeguards in the form of medical documentation on their detention, according to a new report by the province’s ombudsperson.
But missing documents are compromising the legal rights of the remaining 42 per cent of patients.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO 1130 NEWSRADIO VANCOUVER LIVE!
“Involuntary treatment plays an important role, but it should only, because of its coercive nature and because it involves taking away people’s liberty, happen in strict compliance with the Act,” said Jay Chalke, B.C. ombudsperson.
The Mental Health Act mandates that healthcare workers submit documentation on why a patient was admitted, how their course of treatment was decided upon, and whether they were informed of their rights, among other things.
And while Chalke says the situation is improving, there’s a long way to go to protect the legal rights of patients.
“In 2019, what we found was that province-wide documentation was happening in 28 per cent of admissions, so it’s more than doubled, and so that’s a good thing,” Chalke said.
“But given, again, that this is the legal authority to detain people and treat people, our view is it should be 100 per cent.”
Critics warn that the missing documentation amounts to a material danger to patients — but some healthcare providers say they’re not surprised by the report’s findings.
“This report may be shocking to the public, but it really is just the reality of the medicine that a lot of us see practiced on a daily basis,” said Dr. Jessica Wilder, co-founder of Doctors for Safer Drug Policy.
“This puts patients at a tremendous amount of risk in so many myriad ways.”
She adds that people are less likely to seek the help they need if the implementation of the Mental Health Act is not followed.
“I think this erodes trust as health care providers, if patients are afraid or unclear of the reasons that they could be held under the Mental Health Act against their will, they’re less likely to access care.”
Other critics question whether involuntary treatment is a good idea in the first place.
“Relying on forced, coercive types of approaches is really not good science,” said Simon Fraser University professor Dr. Kora DeBeck.
She says that there is not enough research to support its use.
“There’s a lot of risks and a lot of harms that come from pushing somebody into addiction treatment when they’re not ready,” DeBeck explained.
“We know it increases the risk of a potentially fatal overdose if they relapse, and relapse is something that’s very common with substance use.”
The Ministry of Health says it has implemented 18 of the 24 recommendations from the ombudsperson’s 2019 report, with ongoing work to address several additional recommendations.
