B.C. aims to clear up misunderstandings surrounding involuntary care with new memo to doctors​on March 13, 2025 at 1:28 am

He and Osborne reiterated their plan to provide treatment at the Surrey pretrial jail by the end of March and at the Alouette Correctional Centre later this spring. The province is also hoping to add 140 mental-health beds to hospitals across the province.

The cost of implementing these remains unclear, as while the province provided $500 million in the 2025 budget to stabilize existing treatment and recovery services, there was no information provided on how much is being allocated for new involuntary-care services.

The commitment to expand involuntary care is also a major reversal from the NDP’s previous position that forced treatment would cause more harm than good, a view shared by advocates who want the province to focus on voluntary care.

“One of the challenges when involuntary care comes up is that we know that people are seeking voluntary care, and there just simply isn’t enough,” former chief coroner Lisa Lapointe, who has been an outspoken critic of involuntary care, told Postmedia News. “I hear from care-providers and people in the community who are working with those who are substance dependent that people are dying on waiting lists.”

Others, such as Conservative MLA Elenore Sturko, who has been pushing for an expansion of involuntary care for over two years, believe the government isn’t going far enough.

She told reporters following the announcement that she was disappointed to see that Wednesday’s announcement makes no changes to the Act and will allow physicians to continue leaving patients with substance-use disorders untreated.

“This is for individuals with concurrent disorders of addiction and mental health. But they’re not actually treating the addiction. They’re treating the symptoms of psychosis,” she told reporters.

“For many people in British Columbia, when they were talking about involuntary care, they would have hoped that the process that was being explored by this government was one that not only included treating the acute symptoms of the psychosis and the psychotic behaviours, but offered a long-term solution to the addiction.”

Earlier Wednesday, Sturko introduced a private member’s bill that would require physicians and nurse practitioners to notify relatives when their loved one is apprehended and when they’re released.

She said such legislation would be useful for information-sharing in cases such as an incident on Feb. 26 where a man was detained after committing two home invasions and assaulting a senior at a South Surrey trailer park while under the influence of drugs. Later, at Peace Arch Hospital, the man tried to disarm a police officer and had to be restrained by a physician.

“My bill would be a supplement to the Mental Health Act and could be useful, for example, in gathering information for a person who may be exhibiting psychotic behaviour and have an addiction like Dr. Vigo mentioned,” said Sturko, explaining that a relative of the man involved in the Feb. 26 incident had wanted to share information with the hospital and police but was never contacted.

“We had the announcement from the government on updating their plans for involuntary care for individuals who may have a substance-use disorder and a mental-health disorder, and again, family communication and participation is something that’s really important in these issues.”