THE Province is introducing proposed amendments to the Mental Health Act to strengthen and protect mental-health care in B.C. and improve supports for people who suffer from severe, overlapping mental-health and substance-use challenges.
“When someone is so unwell they can’t make decisions about their own safety, we have a responsibility to step in with compassion and care,” said Premier David Eby on Monday. “By strengthening involuntary care and protecting the people who deliver it, we’re taking an important step to support vulnerable patients, help their families, and build a more responsive mental-health system where no one falls through the cracks.”
If passed, the Province will update the act by removing Section 31(1) and replacing it with a more modern and clearer liability-protection provision. For more than 40 years, Section 31(1) has offered limited legal protection for front-line health-care workers who provide treatment to involuntary patients, under direction by psychiatric professionals. However, its wording has sometimes caused confusion about its intent. The proposed new provision in Section 16 maintains and strengthens this protection, using more explicit and up-to-date language to clearly support the work of health-care providers.
This will better protect the health-care workers providing involuntary mental-health care to patients in accordance with the act. These changes will also help to clarify the purpose of the act, which is to provide treatment to people who require it.
“Treating people with severe mental-health and substance-use challenges often requires urgent, informed decisions,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Health. “The proposed amendments reduce ambiguity in the Mental Health Act to better ensure that care is provided when someone is unable to seek it themselves. This is another step toward improving outcomes for vulnerable patients and building a system of care that works for everyone.”
More than 2,000 mental-health beds in B.C. can provide involuntary care when needed. Government is urgently working to open more involuntary care beds in communities throughout the province. This includes opening involuntary care beds at Surrey Pretrial Services Centre and Alouette Homes in Maple Ridge earlier this year, as well as work underway to open mental-health facilities in Surrey and Prince George that will have the capability to provide voluntary and involuntary care.
“When used correctly and consistently, the Mental Health Act ensures people suffering from severe mental disorders get the timely care and protection they need, even if they are unable to seek it themselves,” said Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.C.’s chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders. “We are finalizing work to ensure that when it comes to children and youth, the act allows us to work with parents to provide the urgent, life-saving, evidence-based interventions they require to prevent acquired brain injury and develop long-term therapeutic approaches. We will provide the specific details soon.”
This work will build on the actions government is taking to build a voluntary, seamless system of care. This includes more than 3,700 beds, which support people with substance-use challenges, of which over 760 are new since 2017, launching the opioid treatment access line, expanding Road to Recovery, opening Foundry youth centres, First Nations healing facilities, and building thousands of supportive housing units.
Quick Facts:
* The Mental Health Act has been in force since 1964.
* During the spring 2022 legislative session, government passed legislation to amend the Mental Health Act so people involuntarily admitted under the act can access support from an independent rights adviser.
* Under the Mental Health Act, involuntary treatment is limited to psychiatric treatment only.
Learn More:
Learn about mental-health and substance use supports in B.C.: https://gov.bc.ca/BetterCare
For more about the Mental Health Act, visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/
BACKGROUNDER
Voluntary, involuntary care in B.C.
The Province says that when adults and young people are in crisis, they must be met with compassion and care. That’s why it has made significant investments to build a comprehensive system of mental-health and substance-use care, including for child and youth mental-health, harm-reduction, acute and community treatment and recovery services.
Voluntary care
* Foundry Centres and Integrated Child and Youth Mental Health Teams that address mental-health and substance-use issues early to prevent more complex challenges in adulthood.
* Bed-based treatment and recovery beds so that people seeking treatment can access these services when they are ready to take that step in their healing journey.
* The Red Fish Healing Centre in Coquitlam is a 105-bed site that provides specialized care to support people who live with the most severe, complex substance use and mental-health issues.
* Road to Recovery, a made-in-B.C. model of addictions care that establishes a seamless continuum of care through a full continuum of substance use services from assessment to withdrawal management (detox), treatment and aftercare services for people with moderate to severe substance-use disorders.
* First Nations treatment centres to support a range of Indigenous-led mental-health and substance-use services that are culturally appropriate.
* Recovery Community Centres, which provide low-barrier, community-based recovery supports that help people maintain their recovery.
* Crisis Response Community Led (CRCL) Service pairs mental-health professionals with peer workers to respond to crisis calls and connect people to mental-health and substance-use supports. CRCL is operating in Victoria, North Shore Vancouver, New Westminster, Prince George, the Comox Valley and Kamloops.
* Assertive Community Treatment Teams are multidisciplinary teams that operate 24/7 and provide services to people who have a history of severe mental illness and/or substance use, many of whom have had difficulty maintaining access to traditional community mental-health and substance-use services.
* Mobile Integrated Crisis Response programs pair a police officer with a mental-health professional to respond to mental-health-related crisis call.
Involuntary care
The Mental Health Act currently states that a patient can only be involuntarily admitted if all of the following four criteria are met:
* the person suffers from a mental disorder that seriously impairs their ability to react appropriately to their environment, or to associate with others;
* the person requires psychiatric treatment in or through a designated facility;
* the person requires care, supervision and control in or through a designated facility to prevent their substantial mental or physical deterioration, or for their own protection or the protection of others; and
* the person is not suitable as a voluntary patient.
Physicians and nurse practitioners apply their clinical assessment to determine the appropriateness of involuntary admission. The vast majority of people with mental-health conditions are effectively treated on an outpatient basis. The Mental Health Act ensures access to care in situations where the person is unable to seek care themselves due to a state of severe mental impairment.
Mental Health Act admissions occur at 75 designated facilities, including:
* 37 hospitals, which are designated as psychiatric units;
* 13 hospitals as observation units, which allow shorter-term admissions; and
* 25 facilities that are provincial mental-health facilities (inpatient).
In addition, 18 involuntary care beds at Alouette Homes in Maple Ridge and the 10 beds in Surrey Pretrial Services Centre opened in spring 2025. Work is underway to open an additional 100 involuntary care beds in Surrey and Prince George facilities.
