B.C. group pushes back against involuntary care, saying it will criminalize people

A group is pushing back against the B.C. government’s move to bring in involuntary care for people dealing with extreme drug use disorder.

“Three hundred physicians, nurses, and health care workers have signed the petition pledging to refuse to certify people when their sole disorder of mind is substance use,” Thea Sheridan-Jonah, with Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy, said at a press conference on Monday.

“We are here because we oppose the expansion the BC NDP put forward in March, but also because we oppose the ongoing legislature aiming to expand the Mental Health Act through Bill 32 as a way to circumvent the ongoing charter challenge led by a coalition of disability justice organizations.”

The B.C. government announced last week that if passed, the bill’s current language around involuntary care would make it clearer and more concise.

The act’s wording has sometimes caused confusion about its intent, the government said, so officials are proposing replacing the language with a more modern and clearer liability-protection provision.

The proposed new provision “maintains and strengthens this protection, using more explicit and up-to-date language to clearly support the work of health-care providers,” the government stated in a release.

The government wants to clarify the purpose of the Mental Health Act, which is to provide treatment to those who need it.

Get weekly health news

However, Sheridan-Jonah said that involuntary treatment is a traumatic experience that increases someone’s overdose risk and does not support long-term recovery or mental health.

“We know that these expansions will be used to criminalize particular populations,” she said.

“They will be used to further criminalize and imprison immigrants, people who use drugs, our unhoused, disabled, transgender, Indigenous, black, and people of colour. We have also seen youth and children weaponized through moral panic narratives that say we need to lock up youth instead of ensuring adequate access to health care and voluntary treatment services.”

Blake Edwards, a health-care worker who has more than 10 years of experience working in the Downtown Eastside, said these are scary times for health care.

• The hottest Cyber Monday home tech deals on Amazon Canada
• ‘Home Improvement’ star Zachery Ty Bryan arrested for 2nd time this year

“The language used to promote forced treatment of drug users with concurrent mental illness is strong paternalism at its simplest,” he said.

“Have we learned nothing? This is the same language used to justify eugenics, forced sterilization of Indigenous women, and ongoing police violence used under the Mental Health Act.”

Edwards said changes need to be driven by evidence-based research, not politicians.

“People experiencing inequities with poor health outcomes that are disengaged in care and untrusting of the system, forced treatment will further erode trust and disengage people from care,” he added.

“We can’t prescribe or police our way out of this crisis. We need housing, we need a regulated, safer supply, we need to bolster our voluntary treatment options, including those with concurrent disorders.”

B.C.’s Health Minister Josie Osborne said it is important to remember that the government is also building a comprehensive system of voluntary care for people with severe mental illness and for people with opioid use and other substance use disorders.

“Involuntary care is just one aspect of our mental health care system,” she said.

“And of course, the Mental Health Act, with its strict guidelines and criteria for admission, helps to provide care for those people who are simply not in a position to be able to make decisions themselves.”

Osborne said she has heard from many family members who care deeply for their loved ones who want them to get the help they need, including if that involves involuntary care.