Report calls for amendments to mental health act for youth

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Tuesday COVID-19 update

Seniors in BC continue to succumb to COVID-19, with 12 deaths reported over the past 24 hours. There are 465 new cases in the province, including 21 in the Island Health Region. 9 schools in Island Health are reporting exposures. The high number of cases among staff has forced the Duncan Christian School to close for the next two weeks, and the elementary school on the Snuneymuxw first nation is also closed as part of the community's shelter in place order.

Immunization program will ensure a second dose

There is more bad news today about the supply of the Pfizer vaccine. Now the federal government says it will not receive any doses of the Pfizer vaccine next week. Late last week, Ottawa said the shipments would be cut in half over the next month because Pfizer shut down part of its factory in Belgium to prepare it to manufacture more vaccines. BC's Minister of Health says although the reduction in vaccine deliveries over the next month is "disappointing," Adrian Dix says the province will still be able to immunize everyone who needs their second dose within 35 days of their first.

"I think getting the second dose is important. It's important to both the strength of the program and people's confidence in the program. So we'll have to make adjustments. We'll have to see. Hopefully, this is s one-time interruption but what we can do in British Columbia is use the vaccine we receive and use it effectively and on vulnerable populations and that is what we're gonna do. And that means second doses are particularly important, it seems to me, in making our long term care facilities safer."—Minister of Health Adrian Dix.

More details about the revised vaccine roll-out plan will be released tomorrow.

Report contains heartbreaking stories from young people in the mental health system

Young people in BC are being involuntarily detained for treatment under the mental health act at an ever-increasing rate, but no one is able to say why. That's just one finding in a report, released today by BC's Representative for Children and Youth. The report is calling on government to amend the mental health act to ensure compassionate care for youth who are forced into mental health treatment. Jennifer Charlesworth says her report contains dozens of heartbreaking stories from young people, forced into mental health treatment that she says results in trauma.

"They were really concerned and distressed by what had happened to them and they often said 'when does the healing begin?' You know this was an experience in sedation and medication and maybe some stabilization, but it was not an experience of helping."
—Jennifer Charlesworth, BC's Representative for Children and Youth.

What would help, according to the Representative, is for government to ensure involuntary hospital detention is truly the last resort, instead of it being the default position due to the lack of community-based programs. Charlesworth says young people should be involved in or at least informed about what mental health treatments they will receive and why. She says Health Authorities need to start collecting consistent data about who is being committed, restrained, sedated and how often. And, she's recommending a Mental Health Review Board be created that is trauma-informed and culturally sensitive.