Difference between revisions of "Mental Health Complaints to the Ombudsperson (14:X)"

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Complaints concerning provincial mental health facilities, their practices or their treatment of patients may be taken to the BC Ombudsperson. This office has the authority to investigate patient complaints, make recommendations to the facility, mediate problem situations that may arise between a patient and the facility and make recommendations to the Lieutenant-Governor and the Provincial Cabinet regarding the results of these investigations.

Complaints must be made in writing. The office is careful to ensure that, where necessary, the identity of the complainant is kept secret from hospital staff. Common complaints include concerns about over-medication, seclusion, or providing rights information. In such cases, the Ombudsperson has the authority to take the issue to an outside medical source to verify whether the patient is receiving appropriate levels of medication, to ensure the facility follows necessary protocols and reviews for placing people in seclusion and provides immediate rights information for those involuntarily detained. Complaints can be filed through the website at [http://www.ombudsman.bc.ca www.ombudsman.bc.ca] or by calling the Ombudsperson’s office at 1-800-567-3247.

Pursuant to following up these complaints, in March of 2019, the Office of the Ombudsperson released a report titled “Committed to Change: Protecting the Rights of Involuntary Patients under the Mental Health Act”. This report investigated many complaints that the legislative safeguards we’ve outlined above were not followed. In fact, the report states that the Office was “disappointed to find significant levels of non-compliance” when reviewing the forms. “In many cases, forms were simply not completed. In many other cases, the forms were completed late or in a manner that did not provide anything close to adequate reasons” (p 6).  

The report includes methodology, findings, and recommendations, and can be accessed at [https://www.bcmhrb.ca/app/uploads/sites/431/2019/03/OMB-Committed-to-Change-FINAL-web.pdf https://www.bcmhrb.ca/app/uploads/sites/431/2019/03/OMB-Committed-to-Change-FINAL-web.pdf].