City Council moving forward with involuntary care facility, but not without pushback

“We already have involuntary care in the province, so I didn’t think that we needed to advocate for it. Plus the concerns around … let’s say that intergovernmental would decide to expand the involuntary care, or to advocate for an expansion of involuntary care at this time, I’m not in favour of it because we haven’t had sufficient voluntary care even in our province. So I would much prefer that we advocate for voluntary care before we expand involuntary care,” Klassen said.

Councillor Kyle Sampson, alongside the rest of City Council, voted in favour of the second motion surrounding involuntary care, and a common sentiment is shared, being the idea of providing care for those who can’t get it themselves. Sampson said he’s heard from many in the community in favour of involuntary care, but one story from a mother resonated with him.

“Her son passed away due to his mental health challenges, and she believes that if it wasn’t for his challenges, he would have had access to some care, but they were so severe that he wasn’t making that decision for himself. And she believes that if involuntary care was in place, he would have been maybe provided that care and would still be here today,” Sampson said.

“That’s the exact kind of situation where we have people who need support, need help, and they’re just not necessarily getting those supports,” he continued.

While Sampson and Klassen found themselves on opposite sides of the debate, that isn’t to say they’re staunchly opposed. In fact, they both agree that the facility needs to be built, and both see the value in each other’s arguments.

“I think there is a degree of voluntary care in British Columbia, and I definitely would agree that it’s not robust enough. And we need to bolster that, and that’s why we’re doing some advocacy in the same breath with, more psychiatric care facilities, long term facilities and resources on that end. But I think that both things need to be true. We need to bolster up those resources that we already have providing voluntary care, and we need much more. But at the same time, there are folks who are dying because they’re not capable of making those decisions, to get the treatment and the care that they need. And we need to support them as well,” Sampson said.

“I’m not opposed to involuntary care. However, I’m opposed to expanding involuntary care at this time when we have such poor voluntary care. People have been desperate to have to put their kids into (treatment). Often, mental health and addictions patients are looking for treatment, and there’s just so little access, so I really think that before we expand something involuntary, we need to actually expand the voluntary care that we actually provide,” Klassen said.

As for what the parameters around involuntary care would look like, Sampson and other Councillors stressed that these decisions would be left in the hands of experts.

“I certainly by no means want to influence the threshold or the parameters of which that involuntary carries met. Not an expert, but I want to encourage the province to engage with those experts, mental health experts, doctors, psychiatrists, and build that program out on what it would look like to have an involuntary care program in British Columbia,” Sampson said.

Given that Klassen was the only Councillor to vote against the second motion surrounding involuntary care, all five motions surrounding the psychiatric care facility passed. This vote was in favour of City Council agreeing to advocate for the facility, so it’s likely this is the first of several steps that will be taken over the coming months as the plan continues to come in place.

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by Tommy Osborne

City Council moving forward with involuntary care facility, but not without pushback

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