By Brent Kerrigan
After two years of trying to introduce changes to the Ontario Mental Health Act, Ottawa Centre MPP Richard Patten has to start over again.
Patten’s private member’s bill, that would, among other changes, force psychiatric patients to take their medication, was taken off the order paper in December as the legislative session ended.
The legislative assembly usually doesn’t carry over private member’s bills that have not reached third reading; Patten’s had only reached second reading.
That means Patten’s bill goes to the bottom of the pile when Queen’s Park resumes sitting some time in the spring.
But Patten says he’ll re-introduce his bill anyway, in the hope that his colleagues will give it priority over others.
He says he thought Health Minister Elizabeth Witmer supported his bill and doesn’t know why it was wiped from the order paper.
“The minister said she would support it,” said Patten in an interview, “but I guess she got overruled.
“Obviously it was the whiz kids in the back room and (Government House Leader) Norm Sterling who decided that no, they weren’t going to bring forward anything.”
But Donna Duncan, a spokeswoman for Sterling, says the bill was dropped out of fairness to other members.
“This is nothing personal with Mr. Patten or his legislation,” says Duncan, “but we can’t pick or choose.”
“I mean, if we carry one bill, we must carry them all.”
She points out that only four bills debated in the last session will be carried over to the next, including two sponsored by the Tories.
Patten himself says the delay may have a positive side.
He says he now has more time to consult with doctors and psychiatric organizations to come up with additional changes to his original bill.
For example, Patten wants to create a community treatment program that will act as a step between a patient’s stay in hospital and re-introduction into everyday life.
Those who fail to make the transition will be sent back to the hospital. Those who succeed and leave the program will then be monitored by their family and friends.
Patten says his new legislation gives medical professionals new criteria to determine if a patient makes the step or not.
He says those sent back may include those who are delusional, who are known to have a violent past, and who aren’t taking their medication.
But Joanne Lowe, executive director of the Ottawa-Carleton branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association, says Patten never consulted with her group about changes to his bill.
Lowe says there is already a form of Patten’s community-treatment program in place.
“Patients can already be treated if they pose an imminent danger,” says Lowe. “People such as physicians or a justice of the peace have to do it from time to time.”
Lowe says more money should be invested in the services already in place instead of trying to revamp the entire Ontario Mental Health Act.
“It seems to us that a lot of time and money has been wasted,” says Lowe.
“I mean, you can change the Mental Health Act all you want, but change it to what?”
Patten says his changes will cost nothing if the Tories keep their promise to reinvest $28 million in mental health.