Mental Health Acts in Canada

Abstract

There are 12 different Mental Health Acts (MHAs) in Canada, all of which provide for the involuntary confinement of the mentally disordered to protect both them from themselves and others from them. The Acts differ in many ways, but three issues stand out above all: (1) involuntary admission criteria, (2) the right to refuse treatment, and (3) who has the authority to authorize treatment. I first describe how the MHAs differ on these issues. I then take up the methodological question of how to select or construct a MHA from the many, all of which have something to be said for them. Finally, I apply this test to the three main issues in dispute and identify which solutions would be in an ideal MHA. My aim in this last is not to settle the issues but to engage with them and so deepen our understanding of what is at stake.