Critics reacted yesterday to proposed changes to mental health law in the province.
The Mental Health Amendment Act 2007 was proclaimed yesterday, three days after a father killed his 11-year-old autistic son and then himself in a basement in northeast Edmonton.
The act calls for changes to involuntary admission criteria for the mentally ill from “presenting a danger to self or others” to “likely to cause harm to self or others, or to suffer substantial mental or physical deterioration or serious physical impairment.”
The changes also require a discharge summary and treatment recommendations be forwarded to the individual’s family physician.
The amendments are a clear example of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing, said NDP MLA Rachel Notley, who is calling for a fatality inquiry into the two deaths.
“They’re expanding people’s ability to ask for treatment but closing beds and cutting funding,” she said.
“It’s ironic. You can now get an involuntary treatment order for a family member, with no place to put them.”
Remaining sections of the act will be proclaimed in early 2010.
