`Time to better protect and respect voice and interests of children,' advocate urges
During her turbulent teen years, Adrianna was hospitalized against her will more than 20 times under the Mental Health Act.
Her memories of the first time she was forced into psychiatric treatment are terrifying.
“They had me restrained to the bed and I was … screaming, I was like, `Let me go!' … (They) injected me with something … I'm still screaming and so then they like pushed the bed I was on into, like, this white room. And then they left me there. And I don't even know how long I was there,” the young woman told B.C.'s children's representative, Jennifer Charlesworth.
“Then they checked on me once, and I was freaking out, just … `I want my mom! I want to leave now! I'm not supposed to be here.' Then I think I fell asleep for a day.”
The number of children and teenagers held against their will under the Mental Health Act has increased “alarmingly” in British Columbia over the last decade, Charlesworth said in a report released Tuesday.
Adrianna, now 21 and planning to attend university, was first hospitalized against her will for her mental health at age 14. “She recalls as a young teenager that she just wanted somebody to give her a hug, to sit with her, to talk with her, to care about what was going on,” Charlesworth wrote in her report, Detained: Rights of Youth and Children under the Mental Health Act.
“In fact, she often felt her identity was disrespected and that she was dismissed or maligned as `that Native girl.' ”
Involuntary admissions of youth, Charlesworth said, rose from 973 in 2008-2009 to 2,545 in 2017-2018, an increase of 162 per cent. Involuntary adult admissions rose much more slowly over this same period, at 57 per cent.
“Clearly, the time has come for government to devote special attention to how the Mental Health Act can be improved … to better protect and respect the voice and the interests of children and youth it affects in such profound ways,” she wrote.
The Mental Health Act, she added, was written in 1964 and should be modernized.
Fourteen youth shared their experiences with Charlesworth. They were between the ages of 10 and 18 when they were first held against their will.
“They recalled forced medication, not being involved in treatment decisions, and a lack of attention to the underlying reasons for their pain. They recalled scary periods of isolation and restraint. Indigenous young people recalled racism and an absence of culturally relevant treatment,” she wrote. Persons over the age of 16 can be admitted against their will if a doctor says they have a “mental disorder,” require treatment, are in need of protection, and cannot be admitted voluntarily.
For children under 16, the consent of parents or guardians is also required. Sometimes forced hospitalization can save lives.
But it can also “be misused and generate harm,” Charlesworth wrote.