The Province is taking action to improve care for people who suffer from severe, overlapping mental-health and substance-use challenges, including brain injuries from toxic-drug poisonings, ensuring they have the right care to meet their needs.
“The Mental Health Act is designed to ensure people suffering from severe mental illness get the care and protection they need,” said Josie Osborne, Minister of Health. “The needs of this vulnerable population have become more complex and further support is needed through involuntary care facilities and continued work with partners. We are also clarifying the act’s application to ensure consistency and to support a seamless system of mental-health and substance-use care that works for everyone, while keeping our communities safe.”
On March 12, 2025, Dr. Daniel Vigo issued a guidance document to the clinical community, including doctors and psychiatrists across all health authorities, to provide clarification on how the Mental Health Act can be used to provide involuntary care for adults when they are unable to seek it themselves. Vigo is B.C.’s chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders.
“Involuntary treatment can be a tool to preserve life and treat the source of impairment in people with combinations of mental disorders, substance use and acquired brain injuries from toxic-drug poisonings,” Vigo said. “Dispelling misconceptions about the use of the act is a first step to support this population, in addition to creating new services, including mental-health units in corrections, approved homes, in-patient beds and community teams supporting the most complex patients and under-served areas.”
The guidance provides information to help clinicians and providers determine when involuntary admission and treatment may be appropriate for people with concurrent mental-health and substance-use disorders when their substance use is worsening their overall mental-health condition.
“The BC Schizophrenia Society continues to see an increasing number of families affected by both mental illness and addiction challenges around the province,” said Faydra Aldridge, chief executive officer, BC Schizophrenia Society. “The Mental Health Act is necessary to protect people and used as a last resort when individuals can’t make decisions themselves. This guidance will improve care for this incredibly vulnerable population, so they can receive help for their unique needs.”
In June 2024, Premier David Eby appointed Vigo as B.C.’s first chief scientific adviser for psychiatry, toxic drugs and concurrent disorders. He was tasked with working with the health authorities, Indigenous partners and people with lived experience to analyze existing mental-health and addictions treatment services in B.C., review data and best practices, and look to other jurisdictions for proven solutions that can be implemented in B.C.
Since then, his focus has been on working with stakeholders, partners and clinicians to determine options to support people with concurrent mental-health and substance-use challenges, and brain injuries from toxic-drug poisonings through the existing act.
The initial new involuntary care beds at Surrey Pretrial Services Centre will open this month and Alouette Homes in Maple Ridge will open later in spring 2025. Government is working to identify sites in other parts of the province as part of the overall response to addressing the toxic-drug crisis.
This work will build on the actions government is taking on building a voluntary, seamless system of care. This includes more than 3,700 treatment and recovery beds of which 700 are new since 2017, launching the Opioid Treatment Access Line, expanding Road to Recovery, opening Foundry youth centres, First Nations healing facilities and building thousands of supportive housing units.
