Health care coalition against B.C.’s involuntary treatment expansion

A coalition of doctors and nurses, students, drug users, and community groups rallied outside the headquarters of Vancouver Coastal Health on Monday, refusing the province’s motion to expand involuntary treatment.

Last week, the B.C. government proposed policy changes to the Mental Health Act. 

The proposed change would remove Section 31 in the involuntary care provisions of the act, with a liability-protection provision added to Section 16.

“That was a very old section of the Mental Health Act. It has created a lot of conversation and anxiety,” Eby told the media at the time.

Members of the protest coalition say they will not implement any of the involuntary treatment policies in their professional positions.

According to the coalition, about 300 physicians, nurse practitioners, and allied health-care workers are joining the protest against expansion.

“It’s not only going to get louder and louder,” said Dr. Ryan Herriot, a spokesperson for Doctors for Safer Drug Policy.

“We have a petition we are launching here where we are calling fellow health-care providers to join us and refusing to participate in the government expansion of involuntary treatment.”

Eby and Osborne argue that the updated language would strengthen the legal standing for both workers and patients.

“It is unfortunate, but it is a necessary reality, and if we’re going to do it, we’re going to treat people with respect and dignity and do it the right way, and we make sure that the health-care workers who deliver that care are looked after as well,” Eby explained.

Herriot had joined the rally on Monday morning.

“Any day now, we are expected to hear the constitutional challenge against portions of the Mental Health Act. And it certainly looks like the government is trying to pre-empt the court — basically undermine the court — and get ready in a way that lets them maintain their own ethical agenda,” he told 1130 NewsRadio.

Herriot says that any such move would be about political pressure, not medical evidence.

“I really want to make clear that the science really does not support what the government is doing. It’s not just a ‘bleeding-heart’ stance. Although, of course, we are strong in our ethics as well.”