1
Mental Health and the Law Committee Mental Health Commission
Terms of Reference – Updated Nov. 6, 2010
Mission:
Working within the framework of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and mindful of the three key priorities of:
development of an anti‐stigma campaign,
creation of a Knowledge Exchange Centre,
formulation of a national strategy on mental health,
At Home
Partners for Mental Health
The mission of the Mental Health and the Law Committee is to seek out, create, analyze and disseminate knowledge and strategies that contribute to these priorities, with particular reference to legislative issues and ways in which people with lived experience and their families interact with, and are affected by, the Justice system.
Vision:
The Committee will conduct its work through the lens of the following principles:
A. To promote the equality of Canadians with mental health problems;
B. To enhance the ability of people with mental health problems to fully participate in society;
C. To ensure the accessibility and delivery of a broad range of mental health services and social supports, including treatment, employment, housing, education and income;
D. To provide for the availability and delivery of services and supports in the least restrictive, least onerous and least intrusive manner;
E. To encourage the active participation of people with mental health problems in the advocacy, design and delivery of services and supports in the community;
F. To ensure that services and supports for people with mental health problems will be delivered in a manner which recognizes Canada’s cultural diversity and the uniqueness of each citizen;
2
G. To provide people with mental health problems with the legal ability to advocate for and enforce their individual entitlements to health care and social supports; and
H. To respect the legal and human rights of people with mental health problems.
Mandate:
To examine the operation of the legislation affecting persons who are vulnerable due to mental illness, and to make recommendations to enhance their protection and promote the efficient and effective delivery of mental health services, as well as care and support by their families and caretakers,; and
To address issues related to interactions between people with mental illnesses and the justice system, including issues related to service delivery for mentally ill offenders;
interactions between police services, the courts, persons with mental illnesses; the mental health system as a whole; and issues related to people with mental illnesses who are under civil commitment
Goals:
1. To identify legislative options that may affect the well‐being and basic rights of PMI including:
consent, confidentiality and privacy legislation
Mental Health Acts
Criminal Code of Canada
Children’s Services/ Child and Family Acts
Regulated Health Professions Acts
Public hospital acts
Police Services Acts (and related legislation)
Corrections and Conditional Release Act and other legislation governing correctional facilities
Employment law
Human rights legislation
Canada Health Act; and
Others as and when identified
3 2. To identify practical and procedural problems which have a negative impact on
PMI who are involved with the justice system and identify solutions including the issues of:
mentally ill offenders and persons with mental illnesses released from the correctional system
persons with mental illness who interact with police as victims, witnesses, accused, people in need of protection and/or persons apprehended under the MHA
persons committed under civil commitment criteria
persons who are declared not competent/capable including children and the elderly
person declared unfit or not criminally responsible under the Criminal Code
3. To identify evidence‐based practices, programs and organization of services and legislations within and outside Canada that promote the well being, integration, protection and access to appropriate and diversified care of individuals with mental illness who come in contact with the justice system.
Strategic Objectives:
In consideration of the three key priorities of the Mental Health Commission, to identify and make recommendations in regard to:
1. Legislation that relates to consent, confidentiality and privacy, to ensure consistency and confidentiality without unnecessary contradiction between laws that affect access to treatment and the availability of care and support from family and other caregivers.
2. The relevant laws and practices, including those governing the health care professions and the employment of health care professionals that affect the timely and safe delivery of treatment and care to individuals with mental health problems in hospitals and in the criminal and youth criminal justice systems.
3. A Criminal system that appropriately takes into account the situation of individuals who are mentally ill.
4. The development and maintenance of procedures and practices that ensure quality mental health care in correctional settings;
5. The development and maintenance of procedures and practices that ensure effective transition from institutional settings to community programs including the removal of barriers that interfere with accessing appropriate mental health resources for clients who have had involvement with the criminal justice system (e.g. “forensic” exclusionary criteria).
6. Laws that ensure procedural fairness for mentally ill persons who may be involuntarily detained or treated in the civil or criminal systems, or whose civil status may be otherwise affected.
4 7. Effective strategies to ensure that the criminal justice system does not become
the de facto provider of services that are properly the responsibility of the health care system.
8. Best practices for police services in regard to their varied and complex interactions with people with mental illnesses, including both training guidelines and appropriate service provisions based on co‐operation and collaboration
9. Methods of education and training staff of correctional facilities about mental illness, and vice‐versa, training and education of staff in psychiatric facilities about clients who have had involvement with the criminal justice system in order to promote greater communication and continuity of care in the transfer of persons with mental ill offenders as they require greater or lower levels of security.
10. The development and utilization of evaluative tools to assess the extent to which mental health laws and their impacts respect the human rights of people with mental health problems.
11. To provide a broad range of individual and systemic advocacy services to ensure equality objectives are met
12. To investigate whether law recognizes positive right to supports/services for people with mental health problems.
Outcomes:
1. input to the Anti‐Stigma Strategy that reflects concerns most directly related to the above identified issues
2. recommendations to the Knowledge Exchange Centre Development Project about content and strategy specific to Mental Health and the Law
3. a chapter for the National Strategy which reflects priorities and solution related
to mental Health and Law issues
Boundaries:
While there are innumerable activities which can be undertaken by the committee, in the current context will be generally bound by considerations that:
activities lead to concrete and measurable products that have an effect on the actual operation of mental health and related services, and that bring about an improvement in the lives of people with mental illnesses‐‐not simply acquisition of knowledge or development of ideas and theories
activities should be able to be accomplished within the agreed upon timeframe and with the available resources; and
activities should be consistent with the key priorities identified by the Commission, and consistent with the mandate/mission of this Committee.
