Involuntary treatment for mental health and addiction in B.C.

With news that the B.C. government supports the expansion of involuntary care for those with mental health and addictions issues, the following SFU experts are available to comment on various aspects of the new policy and its potential impacts.

AVAILABLE SFU EXPERTS

KORA DEBECK, professor, School of Public Policy 
kdebeck@sfu.ca
Expertise: drug toxicity, need for safer options, drug-related harm preventions.

DJ LARKIN, executive director, Canadian Drug Policy Coalition 
dj_larkin@sfu.ca
Expertise: Politicization of health care programs, strain on emergency services by unregulated drug supply, policy alternatives to opioid crisis, human rights and legal issues around drug use, social determinants of health. 

Specific to this story:

1. Concerns regarding involuntary care in the context of data and analysis about the higher risk of overdose death after a period of abstinence – including abstinence that was not voluntarily chosen.
2. Situating “addictions” within a multi-sectoral environment in which “readiness for care” is informed considerably by other social determinants of health such as adequate housing, personal safety, gendered violence.
3. Assessing the need for policy of this nature given the unavailability of voluntary care and in a policy context where many “treatment” programs are private, for-profit and not regulated and whether this could lead to more public dollars going into private health care systems.
4. Contextualizing involuntary care initiatives, which may on an individual basis come from a place of concern for a loved one, within the social science literature regarding impacts of such care on trust and willingness to access and remain engaged with care services and family/community connections.
5. Contextualizing this move within the broader policy landscape which has allowed the currently illegal drug supply to become more unpredictable and thus leading to more injuries, including hypoxic brain injury.
6. International and domestic standards on rights to only receive care where informed and uncoerced consent is provided.

CONTACT 

WILL HENDERSON, SFU Communications & Marketing 
604.368.2532 | will_henderson@sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University
Communications & Marketing | SFU Media Experts Directory
778.782.3210

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