A new report by Health Justice – Coercion and consent in BC’s long term care services

From: Health Justice Newsletter

We’ve released a new report!

Coercion and consent in BC’s Long Term Care Services

The impacts of involuntary treatment in long term care are part of a larger story of coercive healthcare. Under the Mental Health Act, people can be admitted as involuntary patients and then placed on “extended leave” then, admitted to long-term care facilities where they remain involuntary patients, permanently losing consent rights for psychiatric treatment. Across multiple healthcare contexts, there is a widespread lack of consent practices for older adults accessing healthcare services.

In the stories we heard, older people experienced a rapid decline in physical and mental health upon interacting with the health care system. This decline was not inevitable and was directly linked to poor consent practices.

When we explored common themes that came up in stories shared by participants, we were left with a difficult question: When people are older, disabled, cognitively changed, distressed, or difficult for the system to place, do their rights become negotiable?

You can find the report here: www.healthjustice.ca/longtermcare
A summary of the report is also available on that web page.

Text version (PDF format) click here.

We have released one video on Youtube, Instagram and Facebook. We will be releasing video summaries of the report over the coming weeks, so be sure to check those out.