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The B.C. Ombudsperson has released a report showing that required forms, authorizing the use of involuntary care for mental health issues, weren’t filled out in many cases across the province.
Ombudsperson Jay Chalke’s report, released Monday, is a follow-up to his 2019 report that highlighted a lack of safeguards for patients involuntarily detained under the Mental Health Act.
Chalke’s report found that during an audit in 2024 many health authorities weren’t filling out the required consent forms for their patients in nearly half of all their cases.
As the province moves to expand the use and scope of involuntary care across the province, especially for those with mental health and addictions, Chalke’s report says there’s more work to be done to ensure patients’ rights were being respected.
“This is fundamental. This is yours and my and all of our [liberty’s] interests that we’re talking about,” Chalke told CBC News. “This is the right to put someone in a locked facility and keep them there.
“And so the least that we can expect is that the facilities do the requirements that are set out in the [Mental Health] Act so that all our civil rights are protected.”
Chalke’s report showed that there were 15,580 unique patients admitted involuntarily in the 2024-25 fiscal year, and just under 21,400 hospitalizations.
He says that health authorities were clearly making efforts to fill out the required forms, with significant progress since his 2019 report into the issue.
“But it’s still a long way from where we should be — which is that in every single case, without fail, if we’re going to take someone’s liberty away, we observe the requirements of the Mental Health Act,” the ombudsperson said.
B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne answers questions about the province’s efforts to expand its involuntary care system. She speaks with BC Today host Michelle Eliot about how the new ‘home-like’ involuntary care space in Maple Ridge will be administered, who gets admitted to the facility, and how the review of B.C.’s Mental Health Act can factor in how the province oversees the system.
Minister says more work to do
B.C. patients who arrive at a health-care facility and are deemed to have a mental health disorder that requires treatment — but cannot admit themselves voluntarily and are considered to be a risk to themselves or others — can be admitted involuntarily if a health-care professional decides so.
The Mental Health Act states that the director of a designated involuntary care facility can admit and detain individuals for up to 48 hours for examination and treatment.
B.C. doctors and other health-care workers have been given updated guidance on involuntary care for youth when they can’t or won’t get care themselves. Parents of children who’ve died from illicit drugs say the change is needed to save more lives. But as Pinki Wong explains, others worry it may drive young people away from help.
Chalke’s report showed that required paperwork — including the physician’s assessment of whether the patient can consent, and the reasons for admitting them against their will — wasn’t being filled out in many cases.
Jonny Morris, the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s B.C. division, said Chalke’s report comes at a time when the province is expanding the use of involuntary care and building more involuntary care beds across B.C.
“If government is wanting to continue to do that, I would say the moral imperative is to ensure stronger safeguards, not weaker safeguards or absent safeguards,” he said.
Chalke also noted in his report that the government had yet to implement a system where an independent rights adviser, for those who are involuntarily detained, is automatically engaged.
Currently, Chalke says that the independent rights adviser is only available when requested by the patient.
In an unrelated news conference in Victoria on Monday, Health Minister Josie Osborne said there was “enormous progress” in filling out the required involuntary care consent forms across B.C., but there was always more work to do.
“I have directed health authorities to ensure that they are doing everything possible to make sure that forms are filled out completely and accurately and in a timely manner,” she said in response to a question from CBC News.
A coalition of advocates gathered Monday to protest the B.C. NDP’s involuntary treatment expansion. New legislation to strengthen involuntary care will be put forward at the legislature this week. As Michelle Gomez reports, the protesters say the proposed expansion infringes on human rights.
