ICYMI: March Edition
In Case You Missed It: What we did in March
Here is what you may have missed from us this month.
Submissions to BC Human Rights Commissioner’s inquiry into hate incidents during the COVID-19 pandemic
The pandemic has only increased tensions in public debate about people experiencing mental health and substance use-related disabilities and/or homelessness as well as about the supports they receive. This has included rhetoric that targets these groups and fit the Inquiry’s definition of “hate incidents.” In response to this, Health Justice made a submission to the BC Human Rights Commissioner’s inquiry near the end of March.
To learn more about the submission or read the full version of it, check out our previous blog post.
Education Sessions
Health Justice regularly provides training workshops with content on the Mental Health Act, human rights, lived and living experience expertise, and embodied learning exercises based in some Indigenous teaching principles. Our recent education has included UBC nursing students, civilian mental health crisis response teams, Provincial Health Services Authority’s BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services webinar series, and the Homelessness Services Association of BC’s Learn and Connect series. We hear feedback that the workshops are very useful in filling in knowledge gaps about how the Act works and that the lived experience insights and embodied learning perspectives are deeply impactful.
Website Updates
We have continued to update our website. This process will be ongoing for awhile. Below is a list of the most recently updated pages:
To keep up with what we’re up to, check out our socials below!
ICYMI: Other News
UNDRIP Action Plan
The Action Plan sets out what the BC government will do to implement UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People) and DRIPA (Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act) over the next 5 years.
To read the action plan, click here.
To read Indigenous responses to this plan, click here.
Police Shot Kyaw Din to Death. He Didn’t Need to Die - The Tyee, Analysis Article
Earlier in March, we acknowledged the avoidable death of Kyaw Din and the recommendations the B.C Coroners Inquest made surrounding the incident. After those posts, an amazing analysis was published by Listen Chen through the Tyee. In it, it was noted that previous articles had used Kyaw Din’s legal name and we did as well in our past posts which was a mistake, we are using his correct name going forward. We urge you to take the time to go through this article that breaks down why Kyaw Din didn’t need to die and why the Mental Health Act needs to change.
To read the article, click here.
Reducing Police Response: Mental Health Pilot Project Planning Continues in New Westminster
This update on the Mental Health Pilot Project was released at the end of February. On February 14, a community engagement plan for the Peer Assisted Crisis Team (PACT) pilot project was approved. This pilot project hopes to see crisis teams made up of peer and mental health specialists responding to mental health crisis calls instead of police. Health Justice is looking forward to seeing how they engage with people with lived experience to help inform this pilot project.
To read about the mental health pilot project, click here.
Delivering for Canadians Now, A Supply and Confidence Agreement
The prime minister announced in an agreement that "We will work with the provinces and territories to determine how together we can deliver better health outcomes for Canadians, including more primary care doctors and nurses, mental health support, aging at home, and better data." Hopefully this means that more data can begin to be collected to better inform BC’s Mental Health Act, especially considering data on involuntary treatment in BC is greatly lacking. We also hope that this intent to “deliver better health outcomes” will lead to increased access to safe and accessible services that are backed by better quality data.