Long-term involuntary care beds open in Maple Ridge

Soon, 18 new involuntary care beds will come online under the province’s push to open up more resources for those who require complex, specialized care.

During a media availability on Tuesday, Minister of Health Josie Osborne explained that the beds at Alouette Homes will welcome those who are held under the Mental Health Act in a long-term capacity.

“Alouette Homes will provide people who have severe mental-health challenges, often coupled with substance-use challenges and brain injuries, with housing that is safe and dignified, while they receive care,” said Osborne.

“We want to ensure people are getting the right care, especially when they are unable to make that decision for themselves. These beds are a vital part of the government’s work to build a continuum of care that works for everyone.”

The homes, adjacent to the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in Maple Ridge, are not for people who are in the correctional system, the government explained, adding they are for those who are already in long-term psychiatric care.

Despite the homes being in Maple Ridge, the Ministry explained that the homes will be operated by Vancouver Coastal Health and the Connective Support Society.

The first residents will move into the facility early this month.

“Alouette Homes is a first-of-its-kind service in B.C. that will provide patients with individualized care, psychosocial supports and housing in a home-like environment while being involuntarily treated under the Mental Health Act,” said Dr. Daniel Vigo, the province’s chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.

“Before these homes, there was no housing alternative for them, due to the extreme complexity of their mental and substance-use disorders, so they were stuck in high-security hospital units indeterminately.”

The government’s move to expand available involuntary care has not been without its critics. In September last year, Premier David Eby announced that a re-elected NDP government would create a billion-dollar involuntary treatment program for people suffering from a combination of mental illness, addiction, and brain injury.

One front-line worker characterized the move as “disappointing and scary.”

Tyson Singh Kelsall, an outreach social worker and researcher at Simon Fraser University’s Faculty of Health Sciences, explained that the expansion has the potential to scare vulnerable people away from seeking care. 

“I fear for people who will be impacted. It just widens discretion for apprehension so widely,” he explained at the time.

The opening of the beds at Alouette Homes comes after involuntary-care beds for those in the correctional system opened at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre in April.

No evidence suggests forced treatment works: Federal health minister

On Tuesday, the federal health minister explained that there’s no evidence to suggest that forcing people into addictions treatment works, but she didn’t weigh in on whether provinces should pursue involuntary treatment.

“I will tell you that I think every single Canadian has the right to get treated,” Minister Marjorie Michel said.

“I will not tell you (that) to force them to be treated is a way to solve the problem. I don’t think for now we would have any kind of scientific evidence on this practice.”

Alberta has introduced sweeping legislation to allow family members, health care workers, or police to apply to have someone ordered into treatment for addiction.

Under that legislation, people using substances who are considered to pose a risk to themselves or others could be forced into a secure treatment facility for up to three months.

In British Columbia, where the opioid crisis has been particularly deadly, the provincial government recently opened a 10-unit facility at a pretrial centre to treat people at the jail who have both serious brain injuries and addiction issues. The government is aiming to add more facilities at jails across the province, along with Tuesday’s Alouette Homes announcement.

B.C. officials said they are trying to provide help for people who are unable to ask for help, and prevent them from spending time in segregation as they wait for a bed to open up.

Ontario announced last month that it plans to study how it can introduce involuntary treatment to the correctional system and plans to hear from people with lived experience and experts. The Ontario government has said it’s looking to B.C. as a potential model.

The proposed changes have been opposed by advocates who say governments should focus instead on expanding access to voluntary treatment.

Michel said she won’t comment on the provinces’ plans for now. 

“I will sit down and see results, because I think we need to work closely together, but mostly we need scientific evidence,” she said in an interview outside the House of Commons.

A 2023 review published in the Canadian Journal of Addiction found there was “a lack of high-quality evidence to support or refute involuntary treatment” for substance use disorder. The study concluded that more research is needed.

The Canadian Mental Health Association in British Columbia said existing evidence shows that forcing people into treatment actually increases the risk that they will die of drug poisoning after being released.