B.C. will force severely addicted and mentally ill people into involuntary care: Eby

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B.C. Premier David Eby has decided the escalating toxic drug crisis warrants forcing those who are severely addicted and mentally ill into involuntary care.

The first of these secure facilities will open soon after minimal renovations on the grounds of the Alouette Correctional Centre in Maple Ridge. Eby said a total of more than 400 beds will open in hospitals across B.C. by modernizing 280 outdated beds and creating more than 140 new ones, with more to come.

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“All of the facilities will provide involuntary care under the B.C. Mental Health Act for people certified as requiring that care,” said Eby at a news conference outside Vancouver City Hall on Sunday.

The premier said treatment beds will open inside prisons, too, starting with 10 beds inside the Surrey Pretrial Centre.

The guidelines for how and when a patient can be taken into care involuntarily under an existing section of the Mental Health Act have been outlined in a memo being distributed across the province by Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.C.’s chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.

Vigo was appointed earlier this summer to draft the plan to address the Canada-wide mental health and drug addiction crisis that disproportionately affects B.C. communities.

As Vigo points out, involuntary care is needed for a minority of those with concurrent disorders who are unable to reach out for help and make the decision themselves, “and their brains and our communities are paying the price.”

Asked about doctor and nurse shortages in the sector, Vigo said his team is working on a framework to adequately staff these expanded facilities, including boosting compensation to doctors and health professionals willing to take on the challenge.

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“People with addiction challenges, brain injuries and mental-health issues need compassionate care and direct and assertive intervention to help them stabilize and rebuild a meaningful life,” said Eby.

“This announcement is the beginning of a new phase of our response to the addiction crisis. We’re going to respond to people struggling like any family member would. We are taking action to get them the care they need to keep them safe, and in doing so, keep our communities safe, too.”

Musqueam Chief Wayne Sparrow said he is “100 per cent” in support of the moves. “If we don’t get our communities healthy, it’s not good for anybody,” said Sparrow during the news conference.

Sxwíxwtn Wilson Williams, a councillor and spokesperson for the Squamish Nation, echoed those sentiments. “Our people and our communities need help … We are in a health crisis, a state of emergency. We are seeing the after-effects of generational trauma.”

Williams said Indigenous people make up six per cent of the population but 35 per cent of those who are incarcerated in B.C., while a quarter suffer from addiction — double the number in the general population.

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Eby acknowledged the tipping point for his decision was a fatal attack by a mentally ill man in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside earlier this month, and the death of a 13-year-old girl from an overdose after her family were unable to get her into care when she refused.

Eby said for every person who dies from an overdose, there are many others left with traumatic brain injury from the effects of repeated overdoses.

“The toxic-drug crisis of today is not what it was 10 or even five years ago,” said Jennifer Whiteside, B.C.’s minister of mental health and addictions. “We are now facing a rising number of people who are living with the lasting effects of multiple overdoses and complex mental-health challenges, tied to social factors like poverty and trauma.

“It’s clear we must do more to provide effective care, while continuing to work with our partners to tackle the deadly poisoned-drug supply and bring an end to this suffering.”

After the first secure facility opens in Maple Ridge, the province is looking into sites in northern B.C., the Interior, Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, with the aim of keeping those taken into care close to their home communities.

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Other facilities will allow those who are arrested to be assessed in hospital and placed in care inside correctional institutions across B.C.

B.C. Conservative Party Leader John Rustad said he was not surprised by Eby’s announcement. “He is flip-flopping on policy,” he said.

Rustad said Eby has already changed course on the carbon tax, and is now doing so on involuntary treatment.

“There is no doubt we need to make changes,” he said. “We are making compassionate involuntary care a key piece in dealing with the medical emergency in B.C.”

The Conservatives would also change legislation to allow parents to force their children into treatment.

Eby supported involuntary care during his 2022 election campaign, but held off when he became premier because of blowback from advocates. He said at the time that the move would not survive a challenge under the Charter of Rights, but said on Sunday that the province is in the middle of defending the Mental Health Act against a court challenge to involuntary care.

He said changes to the law to be introduced at the next legislative session around involuntary care, including for youth, will offer a clearer path to get patients admitted when they aren’t capable of asking for help on their own.

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B.C. Greens leader Sonia Forstenau said Eby was following Rustad off a reactionary cliff.

“I am deeply concerned about the overreliance on involuntary care. We are currently involuntarily treating more people than we ever have in our province — over 20,000 people annually — yet there’s little evidence it reduces rehospitalization or repeat offences,” Forstenau said.

Eby and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth are also calling on the federal government to beef up the rules around detaining repeat violent offenders, and to crack down on poisoned drugs at the borders and B.C. ports — such as in Delta, where a 2023 report found that less than one per cent of containers were physically searched.

“It’s time the federal government increase funding, enforcement and investigations at Canadian ports because we are seeing, first-hand, the devastating impacts of organized-crime groups exploiting gaps in enforcement and federal legislation to facilitate the flow of precursor drugs into our province,” said Farnworth.

With files from David Carrigg

jruttle@postmedia.com

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