B.C. prisoners with complex mental illnesses aren\u2019t getting the psychiatric treatment they need, and are being kept in jail longer than required, because the province has only one 190-bed hospital for these high-risk patients, according to a scathing new report.<\/p>\n
The British Columbia Review Board, which is in charge of assessing the condition of these patients, released its annual report for the 2024 fiscal year Wednesday. The opening message of chair Brenda Edwards outlined how chronic underfunding has brought the forensic health care system to a breaking point.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my view, these shortages put the safety of the public and the rights of individuals at risk,\u201d she wrote in the report, which was shared with provincial Attorney-General Niki Sharma last week. <\/p>\n
After a person in B.C. is found not criminally responsible or unfit for trial, decisions about their care, including whether they can be released from care, are made by a three-person panel of the B.C. Review Board.<\/p>\n
Over the past year, Ms. Edwards wrote, B.C.\u2019s already-inadequate supply of forensic psychiatric hospital beds has dwindled further, along with a \u201cdearth of adequately staffed and supported residences available to accommodate those patients who no longer require hospital care but require close oversight and supportive services.\u201d<\/p>\n
B.C. opens new long-term involuntary care beds in Metro Vancouver<\/a><\/p>\n Plus, she noted, since the Baldy Hughes centre in Prince George closed, there are no facilities for forensic patients who want to go on leave from the high-security hospital to engage in residential addictions treatment.<\/p>\n A lack of supervised housing, Ms. Edwards wrote, is making it much more difficult for the authorities to release these people back into the community through incremental steps, \u201cwhich is often the only safe and viable option.\u201d<\/p>\n This spring, the board noted that Ontario has 11 forensic hospitals to serve its population of 15.9 million, while B.C.\u2019s 5.6 million people have access to only one facility.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ms. Sharma did not respond to The Globe and Mail\u2019s request for comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n The B.C. NDP narrowly formed government again last fall, with Leader David Eby campaigning to build more secure facilities to forcibly treat the many people trying to survive while battling complex mental illness, long-standing addictions and an extremely unaffordable housing market.<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the province touted the creation of 28 new beds to treat people against their will.<\/p>\n