Survey: forced treatment
The Castanets Staff – August 20, 2022 / 7:30 am | History: 381014
Photo: Megan Salley
David Ibby with MLAs Harwinder Sandhu, Roly Russell and community members at a stop in the Okanagan.
British Columbia’s attorney general and BRC NDP leadership candidate believes “governments of many stripes” have left people with mental health problems and addictions for decades.
David Ibby says it’s time for that to change.
Speaking to Castanet News on a tour of the Okanagan, Eby pointed to the decision to close Coquitlam’s Riverview Psychiatric Hospital in the 1980s, saying governments have failed to provide the necessary support to those who would otherwise end up in the facility.
“I think we’re at a point now with the crisis in many central communities related to mental health and addiction that we’re going to have to get it,” Eby said.
“The challenge for governments is that it’s expensive, it takes a long time to create, but it’s very clear to me that it’s necessary.”
Eby says people need to recognize that the province is required to follow federal law, including changes around the ability of courts to hold people on bail.
Because of this, Eby says the challenge is to become more aggressive in using mental health and drug treatment intervention.
“And that means things like forced mental health and addiction treatment for people to at least give them a chance to survive, but also to respond to the crisis that they’re obviously in.”
The British Columbia government shelved plans earlier this year to force treatment for youth after overdoses after pushback from experts and drug users.
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