PPAO in the Media
Mental health law too convoluted
The Toronto Star
Oct. 12, 2006
HELEN HENDERSON
Who's on your side if you or someone you care about is struggling with mental illness in a society that doesn't want to know?
Ostracized, ridiculed, persecuted, abandoned, fearful. Too often these feelings are overwhelming for anyone seeking help.
Allies are few and far between, the search so frustrating, the system so convoluted, it's easy to feel defeated before you even start - which is undoubtedly part of the reason a series of free workshops on understanding mental health law was sold out long before it started touring the province this month.
"Every session is full," says David Simpson, director of Ontario's Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office, which is hosting the series. "Even when we added extra time slots, they were filled in hours."
The group helps protect individual rights in provincial psychiatric institutions, cutting through the bureaucratese and conveying the wishes of those whose voices might otherwise not be heard.
It's a role Simpson would like to see expanded into all long-term-care facilities and the community at large.
The proposed long-term-care act in the works at Queen's Park includes a stipulation that rights advice must be available to anyone in a locked unit, he notes. "That's a first. And it's a good sign," he says.
But as the sold-out workshops show, the need is much wider.
The patient advocate office would like to offer its services to seniors and people with disabilities in all facilities, Simpson says.
Twenty years ago, Ontario enshrined in law the right to advice for patients in psychiatric facilities and those in the community who may be ordered to get treatment. Rights advisers explain what can and cannot be done. If they're asked to do so, they also may help clients to navigate the legal system.
"The right to advice is one of the key checks and balances in the system," says Simpson, whose office is part of a network working hard to help Ontarians navigate the mental health system.
It includes a number of independent groups based at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CamH to those who know it well). Among them:
- the Consumer/Survivor Information Resource Centre -
416-595-2882; - the CAMH empowerment council - 416-535-8501, ext. 4022;
- and a student awareness group - 416-535-8501, ext. 3013.
"There's still a lot of discrimination and other systemic issues embedded in the system," says Lucy Costa of the student awareness group.
"There's a gap between the law and what's happening on the ground. The system has to be more accountable and it's crucial that there's more consciousness-raising."
The Psychiatric Patient Advocate Office is, needless to say, among the leaders trying to get the word out.
Its website - http://www.ppao.gov.on - carries informal "infoguides," on everything from accessing personal health records and dealing with the province's consent and capacity board to powers of attorney and driver's licence suspensions.
It also has useful links to other websites related to mental health.
As for the free public workshops: "We're hoping to do more in spring," says Simpson. Check the website for more info.
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