Mental Health Act

• Intervention without human rights goes by many names — involuntary institutionalization, compulsory drug treatment, “coerced care,” forced abstinence or a combination of all of those terms.
• Involuntary treatment in the Global South has been labelled inhumane by rights-based organizations, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS and Human Rights Watch.
• In Alberta, Danielle Smith’s UCP has also proposed apprehending those with, in her words, “severe drug addiction.”

Increased risk of overdose

• The evidence shows that forced treatment leads to increased risk of death and deprives survivors of autonomy, while no positive benefits have been established.
• From Mexico to Sweden, Vancouver and England, involuntary treatment has been found to increase risk of overdose and shows no significant impact on substance use patterns.

Lowered tolerance

• These overdoses are trending away from being predominantly non-fatal to being deadly due to the toxicity of the supply.
• People are being discharged into the same living conditions with lowered tolerance.

Settler colonial violence continues

• But reports suggest it is occurring through misuse of the province’s Mental Health Act.
• The B.C.
• Involuntary psychiatric detentions among youth, however, are at an all-time high in the province.
• As with most punitive and carceral policies in Canada, the province’s Mental Health Act is used disproportionately against Indigenous people in British Columbia, including children — a disturbing continuation of the violence against Indigenous children that Canada is founded upon.

Relying on involuntary treatment

• Involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations under the B.C.
• Mental Health Act for those older than 14 also increased to 23,531 from 14,195 from 2008 until 2018 in the province.
• Relying on a system designed to criminalize drug use, while temporarily stabilizing people via involuntary mental health treatment, risks causing further harm, trauma and death.
• Read more:
  As an Indigenous doctor, I see the legacy of residential schools and ongoing racism in today's health care

Moral panics

• Expanding forced treatment in Canada and elsewhere stems from the same moral panics that drove earlier drug prohibition regimes imposed through colonial power.
• Provinces should collaborate with municipalities and health boards to expand life-saving and life-affirming safe use sites, and all levels of government must urgently prioritize solutions to the housing crisis.

• TORONTO, Dec. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VitalHub Corp. (the Company or VitalHub) (TSX: VHI) is pleased to report that its subsidiary, S12 Solutions (S12), which was acquired by VitalHub earlier this year, continues to achieve significant market penetration with a new S12 Solutions contract signed in November 2021.
• S12 Solutions is a UK-based company, which helps mental health professionals efficiently complete Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) processes.
• S12 Solutions is a digital platform, which connects Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) with approved section 12 (s.12) doctors for MHA assessments in England.
• We are extremely pleased with the progress being achieved by the S12 team, said Dan Matlow, CEO of VitalHub Corp.

• TORONTO, May 31, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VITALHUB CORP. (TSXV: VHI) (the Company or VitalHub) is pleased to report that newly acquired subsidiary, S12 Solutions (S12), has achieved significant market penetration since February 2021.
• S12 Solutions is a UK-based company, which helps mental health professionals efficiently complete Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA) processes.
• S12 Solutions is a digital platform, which connects Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) with approved section 12 (s.12) doctors for MHA assessments in England.
• Since February 2021, S12 has added new users totalling: 562 AMHPs, 267 s.12doctors, and 16 claims processors.

• House of Commons Library

  This research briefing describes police detention powers and outlines a recent history of their reform.

• The police have powers, set out in part IV and part V of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), to detain those they have arrested on suspicion of committing a crime.
• The police have powers to detain adults for their own (or others) safety under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
• They also monitor compliance with statutory guidance on detention powers (PACE Code C) and College of Policing (the body responsible for professional standards in policing) guidance on Detention and custody.