B.C. is still failing to meet its obligations to properly fill out documentation for people held involuntarily under the Mental Health Act, five years after the province’s ombudsperson first identified issues.
“This is a legal authority to detain somebody against their will, and it shouldn’t take place unless the authorities comply with all of the requirements in the act,” Ombudsperson Jay Chalke told Black Press Media after his latest progress report was released on Monday, Jan. 26.
Chalke’s report follows-up on 2019’s Committed to Change investigation, which found health authorities fully completed required paperwork for just 28 per cent of involuntarily held patients. This follow-up finds that as of 2024, full compliance is only up to 58 per cent, and progress is uneven across health authorities.
This paperwork is used for a provider to document why a patient is being held and why they need treatment.
This is particularly important for cases when people are given medications, says Chalke, because provincial legislation passed in the fall makes these forms the de facto consent document under the law for forced treatment.
To fully protect the civil rights of patients, the goal is for 100 per cent of forms to be complete for each patient.
Northern Health is the worst offender, with complete paperwork for 34 per cent of patients, followed by Fraser Health with 42 per cent and Interior Health with 47 per cent. The Provincial Health Services Authority has the best record, at 92 per cent, followed by Vancouver Coastal Health with 81 per cent and Island Health with 62 per cent.
“I think it’s disappointing that when health authorities accept a recommendation some five years ago, that we’re only at the point where some of them have made only marginal improvements,” Chalke said.
Chalke’s report also provides updated numbers for how many people are hospitalized involuntarily and voluntarily for mental health care in total each year. One notable trend is that the number of patients voluntarily admitted is increasing, while the number admitted involuntarily decreased.
The number of involuntarily admitted patients hit a high in 2020/21, when 17,730 people were admitted involuntarily and 11,279 were admitted voluntarily. By 2024/25, the number admitted involuntarily fell to 15,580, while the number voluntarily admitted rose to 14,408.
Chalke contrasts the large number of people admitted each year to the number accessing a new independent rights advice service, which began operating in February 2024. So far, the service has received 1,565 requests.
The creation of this service was one of the recommendations of Chalke’s 2019 report. But the report had also called for the advice service to automatically inform the rights advisors when a person is admitted involuntarily. The report points to comments from now-Premier David Eby — then the attorney general — acknowledging that this was “key” to protecting patients.
The ombudsperson’s office has been assured the government has not stepped back from this commitment — though no timeline has been given.
Health Minister Josie Osborne responded to the report during an unrelated press conference on Monday, saying there has been “enormous progress” since Chalke’s first report.
“There’s always more work to do, and I have directed health authorities to ensure that they are doing everything possible to make sure that forms are filled out completely and accurately and in a timely manner,” she said.
But Chalke calls the progress “mixed.”
“We would really very much like to see that pace of change accelerated and go to a point where all the steps that ought to be taken under the law to protect someone’s civil rights are taken 100 per cent of the time,” Chalke said.
Chalke is the outgoing B.C. ombudsperson, and is set to retire as of Saturday, Jan. 31. He is to be replaced by Sandy Hermiston, the former ombudsperson of Prince Edward Island.