Community treatment orders needed, task force chair says

A new government task force will spend the next year coming up with a strategy to implement community treatment orders in New Brunswick, according to its chairman.

New Brunswick is the only province in Canada that doesn't have this legislation, which would allow authorities to monitor mental health patients in the community in an effort to ensure patients take their medications while under the supervision order.  

The New Brunswick government appointed Matthew Tweedie, a Fredericton lawyer, last week to lead a task force that will examine what role community treatment orders — or community support orders — may play in helping New Brunswickers struggling with mental illnesses.

Tweedie, who has also spent more than seven years as a chairman of a mental health review tribunal, said the question surrounding community treatment orders has moved beyond whether the province should have them.

"This is not a question of if, but it is a question of how and when," He said.

"Let's do it right and make sure we have the support in the community."

Tweedie said the task force has some very straight-forward objectives.

"The primary goal is to reduce hospitalizations, which reduces cost to the hospital. Any time you can keep a patient in their home, in their community, receiving the support that they need, whether it is for mental health or any other health issue, I think intuitively we all think that is best for the patient," he said.

It is a part of our collective societal interest that we look after everyone in our society as best we can.- Matthew Tweedie, chairman

"I also think it reduces stress on the families who are not having to resort to perhaps bringing the patient to the hospital all the time."

Health Minister Victor Boudreau said in a statement last week the task force will "ensure a more patient-centred approach to care in our communities."

The Liberals promised to bring in the orders in their election campaign and it was also a recommendation out of the coroner's inquest into the death of Serena Perry. The coroner's inquest recommended a forthcoming law be called, "Serena's Law."

The Perry inquest was not the first New Brunswick coroner's inquest to propose the treatment orders. An inquest into the death of Moncton's Kevin Geldart also called for the same reform.

Organizations, such as the New Brunswick Psychiatric Association, have already put forward calls for community treatment orders.

These recommendations failed to move forward, however.

Now, Tweedie's task force is expected to finish its work by the end of 2016. It will work with the regional health authorities, the New Brunswick Psychiatric Association, as well as people and families living with mental health issues.

Legislative reform needed

The task force will split into two separate working groups. One will examine the legislative changes required to the Mental Health Act and the Infirm Persons Act.

The other will look at what services are needed in the province in order to support patients once they are under a community treatment order.

When drafting a proposal, the lawyer said there will be privacy issues and individual rights issues that will need to be considered in the next year.

Tweedie also said he does not know how much it will cost to roll out a community support system.

He said answers to those questions will be up to the provincial government when it begins implementing the system that is ultimately recommended by the task force.

However, he said there will be obvious costs. Tweedie pointed to so-called FACT (which stands for flexible, assertive community treatment) teams working as a pilot project in Moncton.

"These FACT teams are going to have to be throughout the province because we have to treat a patient in rural New Brunswick the same as a patient in a more urban centre," Tweedie said.

"So there will be costs. I imagine there will be costs associated with putting those teams in place, so patients, no matter where they reside, will receive treatment."

The importance of these community treatment orders reaches beyond the people and family members, who will immediately benefit, the task force chairman said.

"It is a part of our collective societal interest that we look after everyone in our society as best we can," he said.

"I think patients suffering from mental illness would be better served and better off in their communities with the support of FACT teams and, if necessary, under a community treatment order."