6 hours Ago By Canadian Press
VICTORIA — British Columbia clinicians have received new guidance about involuntary care for people who use drugs, which includes physicians being told it can't be used to prevent harmful "risk-taking" by someone who isn't impaired by a mental disorder. The guidance from Dr. Daniel Vigo, B.
C.'s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, is aimed at helping clinicians and others decide when involuntary admission is appropriate for people with both mental-health and substance-use disorders. Vigo says in a news release that involuntary treatment "can be a tool to preserve life and treat the source of impairment" among those with such complex needs.
He says "dispeling misconceptions" about the use of the Mental Health Act is a step toward supporting those patients, in addition to bringing new services online, including mental-health units in corrections facilities and care homes. The 11-page guidance outlines three main scenarios when someone with substance-use disorder may receive involuntary treatment — simultaneous mental disorders, acute and severe psychiatric syndrome with unknown causes, and ongoing mental impairment after remission from an acute state. But it says the legislation must not be used as a "controlling intervention to curb risky decision-making" that is unrelated to a state of mental impairment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2025. The Canadian Press.
