ICYMI: June Edition
In Case You Missed It: What we did in June
June was National Indigenous History month. Check out the twitter thread linked below for an amazing list of resources that was posted for National Indigenous History month. There is so much great content throughout the thread across a variety of topics in Indigenous History and there were two parts!
New Gender Based Equity Project launched
Health Justice is exploring how law and policy changes could improve gender equity in BC’s mental health and substance use health system. We are engaging with women, non-binary people, Two-Spirit people, and others with marginalized genders who have lived and living experience of involuntary treatment under the Mental Health Act as well as Indigenous experts in culturally safe services on gender-based impacts. As well, we are engaging in research to find effective examples of law and policies that address substantive equality for marginalized genders experiencing mental health detention and involuntary treatment. To learn more about this project, check out our Gender Equity page.
Two Blog Posts: Pride Month and the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision
This month we put out two blog posts, one for Pride month and one about the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision. Our Pride month blog post addressed the roots of Pride as a protest and provided past and current context to 2SLGBTQ+ rights and mental health in Canada to better understand what work needs to be done and how we can help support 2SLGBTQ+ mental health and ensure their needs are being met. The second blog post was about the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision that was made on June 23 regarding a case with the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. By allowing this case to proceed it supports access to justice and acknowledges that people with mental health-related disabilities face significant barriers to bringing legal cases forward.
Our Work pages updated
You may have noticed that there are less greyed-out pictures and coming soon buttons on Our Work page. We’ve recently added more content to a few of the pages. While there is still more to add in the future, we hope this helps provide more insight into the work that we are doing. The areas that have had content added are:
Guiding Principles
Decolonizing Services & Laws
Decreasing Reliance on Police & Security
Gender Equity in Involuntary Treatment
To keep up with what we’re up to, check out our socials below!
ICYMI: Other News
Extreme Heat and Human Mortality: A Review of Heat-Related Deaths in BC in Summer 2021
On June 7th, a coroners report was released reviewing the deaths caused by the 2021 heat dome. The report found that people with schizophrenia, mood and anxiety disorders, and substance use disorder experience higher rates of death due to heat. It also found that people who died during the heat dome were more likely to live in poor neighbourhoods. These findings highlight the link between climate change and social inequality. In the report, strategies for future heat events were discussed with the report noting that “any successful strategy must include the voices and needs of those most at risk of injury or death from extreme heat to find out what would be most helpful during a heat event… Lived experience must inform community strategies for prevention from planning through implementation.”
Supreme Court of Canada unanimously says Mental Health Act challenge can proceed
The highest court in Canada said that the human rights issues related to the Mental Health Act are serious. The court found that the Council of Canadians with Disabilities has the right to bring their case forward, which focused on challenging outdated forced psychiatric treatment laws in BC’s Mental Health Act. The BC government had been fighting for years to keep this case from going to court. Allowing this case to proceed supports access to justice and acknowledges that people with mental health-related disabilities face significant barriers to bringing legal cases forward.
For the full decision click here.
An easier to read summary of the decision by CLAS can be found here.
First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) and the Health Standards Organization (HSO) Released the BC Cultural Safety and Humility Standard
The FNHA and HSO have released a tool that “will enable organizations to address indigenous-specific racism and build a culturally safe health care environment.” This toolkit will help the BC health system improve their systems to be more culturally safe and will help better meet the needs of Indigenous people. The standard was developed by “Indigenous thought leaders and health professionals with a focus on designing, implementing, and evaluating culturally safe systems and services at the organizational and institutional level.”