By Kingsley Gilliam
An open letter to Premier Doug ford
Dear Premier Ford:
Re: Ontario Mayors’ request to force people into addiction and mental health treatment.
I am writing in support of the mayors’ request for revision of the Mental Health Act, to facilitate compulsory addiction and mental health treatment in circumstances where a person’s condition make them incapable of providing informed consent, yet is not a danger to self or others.
If left untreated, they will deteriorate into severe dysfunctionality, and often homelessness, criminal incarceration and severely shortened life expectancy and even tragedies.
I would like to inform you and your Cabinet and policy advisors of my background.
I have been mental health practitioner, trained in Psychiatric Nursing at a 3000 bedded psychiatric hospital, Bellevue Hospital School of Nursing in Kingston Jamaica. I have participated in Travelling Clinics, in the Regions and was later seconded to the Pan-American Health Organization ( PAHO ) Demonstration Project, to decentralize psychiatric services in Jamaica, by establishing psychiatric units in Regional General Hospitals throughout Jamaica.
The PAHO project team, was led by renowned Canadian Psychiatrist and former Professor of Social Psychiatry and Medical Directot, at McGill University, Dr. Raymond Prince.
In addition to the training and experience listed above, I have undergone extensive training with Dr. Maxwell Jones one of the world’s leading authorities on psychiatry.
Dr. Jones was founder of several therapeutic modalities including Milieu Therapy and his masterpiece, The Therapeutic Community; he also authored several books on Psychiatry.
He trained the entire staff of Sudbury Algoma Hospital in his models, and when Queen St. Mental Health Centre was redeveloped, he was engaged to train the staff.
Years later in the early 80s, I again participated in training with him in Edmonton and Ponoka, Alberta where he again trained the staff of two Alberta provincial psychiatric hospitals.
I have also been involved with psychiatric services throughout Canada, having worked on the Psychiatric Unit at Sudbury General Hospital in 1969 and later, 1974 to 1977, as an Adolescent Psychiatric Counsellor on the Adolescent Psychiatric in-patient Unit at Sudbury Algoma Hospital
In Ft. McMurray, Alberta, I chaired the Ft. McMurray Preventative Social Services (PSS) Board. That Board was charged with developing social services to meet the urgent needs of the new town of Ft. McMurry, during the “boom years”, which saw the population quadrupled in one year.
All health and social services and educational services were overwhelmed with the demand for their services and had difficulty coping with that demand. Schools ran on two shifts daily. The local high school had one counselor for 1200 students and Peter Pond Junior High School with 1100 students had only one councillor, while elementary schools had none.
During that period schools were faced with an alarming rate of crises among students and their families.
Consequently, I volunteered to provide counselling to elementary schools. I also teamed up with the Psychologist at Peter Pond Junior High School to train selective students in Peer -Counseling.
Students were taught to recognize the signs and symptoms of distress or crisis, in fellow students, responding and intervention skills, and how to get help for those students.
The Preventive Social Services Board developed an array of new initiatives, projects and programs, to address the Boom Stress Phenomenon, and community crisis, including expanded Mental Health Counselling through a 24×7 crisis line and counselling system.
It was after I was engaged to do staff development training, for the Crisis Team, that I was appointed to the PSS BOARD by resolution of the Town Council.
Also in Ft. McMurray, as a Manager of the Ministry of Social Services Youth Assessment Centre, under the Juvenile Delinquent Act, I was responsible for developing both the Standards of Care and the Assessment Package that youths were required to successfully complete in order to be discharged from the system by the courts.
In Edmonton, I worked as an Outreach Worker for Canadian Mental Health Association supporting mental health clients that had graduated from their supportive housing program to independent living.
There was a high rate of readmission to hospitals, so the Outreach Worker position was created.
At that time hospitals in the Greater Edmonton Area and elsewhere in Alberta, had difficulty finding halfway housing facilities to accept patients ready for discharge.
Consequently, I designed and conducted a study titled: “Rehabilitation Housing Needs for Mental Health Patients in the Greater Edmonton Area”.
This led to funding for various agencies to provide the different levels of service, and the Canadian Mental Health Association; funding was acquired to purchase an additional apartment building which more than doubled their capacity.
In Faro Yukon, as Senior Social Worker/ Social Development Worker, for the Faro /Ross River Regional Office of the Ministry of Health and Human Resources, I managed that office, which provided all health and social services to persons in that Region, including mental health and addiction services.
These several decades of training and experience in addressing mental health issues, in Jamaica and Canada, have informed my perspective on mental health policy issues.
Over the last five decades, I have seen the pendulum swing from where forced hospitalization and treatment was the norm to where Mental Health Acts in Canada prevented forced hospitalization, unless an individual is a danger to him /her self or others.
Since this change to the Mental Health Acts, I have personally witnessed numerous individuals, who needed psychiatric intervention but incapable of consenting to treatment and were severely ill, were denied treatment despite their loved ones’ desire. The result was continuous deterioration in their condition. Many succumbed to slow, tragic death, or were incarceration in criminal institutions.
While I understand the Charter of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms provision that is being used as the basis for denial of treatment in these cases, we have seen thousands of people who could be treated and rehabilitated, deteriorate into severe health conditions and homelessness. Needless to say, these conditions ultimately result in untimely deaths without adequate treatment.
I therefore wholeheartedly support the call from Ontario Mayors for the Provincial Government to address this issue.
Doing so, will save many lives and restore many to independence, allowing them to contribute the economic and social aspects of society.
With the availability of modern treatment protocols for varying mental health disorders and for persons suffering from chemical addiction, there is no moral or ethical justification to continue with the status quo.
I am mindful of abuses in the past, and that if not properly regulated, abuses could occur again.
Against this reality, I recommend that any legislative expansion of compulsory treatment, include the same system of reviews that are currently in place for persons that are mandatorily held under the Mental Health Act.
Yours Truly
KP Gilliam
Kingsley P Gilliam M.A.
Director, Communication, Social Justice and Social Services, Black Action Defense Committee Inc.