Scary, disappointing: Eby’s U-turn on involuntary care, advocate says

A surprise promise from B.C.’s premier about involuntary treatment for mental illness, addiction, and brain injury is being called disappointing and scary by one front-line worker in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

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

“I knew there would be an expansion of some kind of involuntary or forced treatment, but I didn’t expect this to be the next step of undoing harm reduction and being the progressive leader of the NDP,” said Kelsall.

He calls it a political gamble on Premier David Eby’s part.

“It’s disappointing, it’s scary, and I fear for people who will be impacted. It just widens discretion for apprehension so widely,” he explained.

On Sunday, 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.

Eby promised the legislation would provide clarity and ensure people, including youth, would be able to receive care when they are unable to seek it themselves.

Kelsall argues involuntary treatment goes against recommendations made to the provincial government to help deal with the unregulated toxic drug crisis.

“He’s weaponizing the crisis, he’s weaponizing the people who we’ve lost to the crisis,” he told 1130 NewsRadio. “We not only know involuntary treatment doesn’t work, it also has negative outcomes in research done around the world.”

But he says it does work as a sound bite and a distraction from other pressing issues like housing and healthcare.

“It works as an election strategy, as a simplistic explanation for a complicated problem.”

Kelsall also fears involuntary treatment would drive some people away from seeking care.

“One of the things I hear almost every shift I take in the Downtown Eastside on outreach is that people are worried about not engaging in healthcare because it might lead to this apprehension and forced hospitalization, forced injections of antipsychotics and long-lasting opioids,” he explained.

“As a social worker, I also have a concern this kind of policy would drive people away in what we call ‘care avoidance.'” 

Eby’s announcement came amid increased concerns about public safety, including the latest violent random assaults in Vancouver earlier this month where one person was maimed and another killed in knife attacks.

The premier’s promise also comes a week before the official launch of the provincial election campaign and three months after he appointed Dr. Daniel Vigo as B.C.’s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs, and concurrent disorders.

The government says it will be releasing “clarifications” from Vigo on how he believes the Mental Health Act can be used to provide voluntary and involuntary care when people have disorders alongside addiction.

Eby says the province will also be setting up a designated mental health unit in a B.C. correctional centre, starting with a 10-bed facility at the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre to provide rapid treatment for people with mental health and addiction challenges being held in custody.

–With files from The Canadian Press and Angelyna Mintz