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April 20, 2000 Open Letter to Members of Ontario's Provincial Parliament Thousands of Ontarians strongly
oppose wasting tax revenues and emergency services on "community
treatment orders". While the Ministry of Health promises
a full continuum of voluntary supports in its policy document,
"Making It Happen", it singularly works to impose
forced treatment in the community. This exhaustive reliance
on coercion in the guise of preventative care will fail people
in crisis and drive them underground. CTOs, as they are being
proposed, will offer patients a ticket off the ward in exchange
for their basic rights, choices and freedoms, and the cost of
this will be overwhelming in both financial and human terms.
A broad base of citizens has repeatedly decried CTOs in consultations,
in petitions and in letters! It's time provincial legislators
joined their constituents in saying no to CTOs— let's put
health care money where it belongs and is needed most! Minister of Health Elizabeth Witmer boasts that Ontario has already spent $150 million to prepare for restrictive changes to legislation. According to the Ministry, a single 'Assertive Community Treatment Team' costs $1 million to run, yet serves just 22 clients! There are examples of teams that have been on payroll for months without engaging any clients! Ms Witmer may keep two or three special interest groups happy with such fast spending, but not taxpayers! One such lobby, the "Schizophrenia Society", holds marches and fundraisers for pharmaceuticals and counsels families to lie to police to get a family member committed. Police should not have to spend additional hours in admitting rooms to resolve family disputes by forcing someone to take harmful drugs! Only a handful of psychiatrists (i.e. the so-called "Coalition of Ontario Psychiatrists") want the laws changed. The present Mental Health Act satisfies the majority, saying people who appear to be a danger (or an "imminent threat") to self or others can be locked up and treated against their will. The Act even has a "leave agreement" (Sec. 27) that works very much like a CTO! So why is Ontario shelling out millions to keep fans of well-endowed pharmaceuticals happy, especially when these groups don't have the facts about the issue? The No Force Coalition has enclosed some of these facts in pamphlet form and asks that you refer to your constituents' objections to CTOs for further insight. You may have already heard the principal arguments: "mental illness" does not lead to violence according to decades of research; force doesn't promote health and is avoided by better health practitioners; "meds" don't work for most people and they often have dangerous effects; cost-effective services that properly assist people in great need or in crisis need recognition and funding-- the widely popular service 'Sound Times', for example, operates on $1 per day per visit, including salaries and rent. Sixty-eight groups in Ontario and beyond have endorsed our stand against CTOs, some of these representing hundreds of member organizations including family groups, service providers, and especially psychiatric survivors themselves! They believe CTOs will violate historically protected human rights, and will be resisted or ignored. Ask again if your constituents want to pay millions to keep a handful of people from refusing problematical treatments. We ask you to speak out and vote against the CTO bill when it's introduced in the Legislature, which may be as soon as this month! Thank you. Family Member Perspectives on CTOs "The concept of community
treatment orders in my situation means that you're denigrating
my spouse, my marriage, by saying these are not people with
their own rights. They can be well enough to make their
own decisions. CTOs are just not acceptable because they
assume a person will never become well enough. CTOs are
institutionalization in the community." "Anyone who is resistant
to medication is going to be aggravated by forced medication.
My son has not improved by being on medication. Forcing
the medical model is tunnel vision." "Medication has helped
our family. He functions much better. However, we are aware
there is no cure so we make the best of the time we have.
He has been able to work part time. But I am concerned about
the violation of his rights. Let's try other alternatives
first." "Education about the existing
laws is what is necessary. I can't imagine ever using a
CTO on my daughter." "I believe we already have
enough laws to take care of patients in crisis, but we cannot
allow all patients to be forced to give up their rights
of self-determination. This is taking away all hope for
a future as a well person. There have been successes in
treating schizophrenia without medication for life, or even
many years." Service Provider
and Professional Perspectives on CTOs "As an Ontario psychotherapist,
I am appalled by the government's intention to bring in
community treatment orders— a measure appropriately
known in the psychiatric survivor community as "leash
laws". Community treatment orders are about control
and tyranny— not help; and they violate freedom and
decency. They threaten the well being of all Ontario citizens
who have ever come in contact with the psychiatric system
or who ever may." "I've been a community
health nurse for twenty years— for the last twelve
as a street nurse, working with people who are homeless.
I know I will never ever use CTOs. The Mental Health Act
functions adequately to protect people who become very ill.
Yet it is no substitute for the care and support some people
need on an ongoing basis and that includes competent and
caring community based mental health care, decent housing,
mental and emotional health supports and enough money to
live on. These are the building blocks for dignity for people
with mental health problems. Forced treatment, via CTOs,
will simply strip people of the last vestiges of choice
in the health care system. It makes me think of bad medical
experimentation on people. It also makes me think of what
happened in early fascist Germany." "CTOs are unnecessary and
have the potential to violate human rights and damage the
doctor/ patient relationship. We have other laws to protect
an individual and society. We need help in building relationships
with patients and creating mutual understanding and respect
so that people can make good choices for themselves and
their treatment." "When an ill-conceived
law is put into place we must oppose it or we give up our
rights when further bad legislation is created. The proposed
change to the Mental Health Act, specifically Community
Treatment Orders, is an example of an ill-conceived law.
Quality of life does not come from a needle or a pill. It
comes from homes, jobs and friends. As someone who grew
up with a parent who had a diagnosis of a major mental illness
I am appalled." "According to the government,
the CTOs will help provide treatment for people in the community,
but they should ask themselves one question. For a homeless
person where is that community going to be? In the parks?
Or under the bridges? How are we going to force medication
on people who do not even have a place to store the pills.?
CTOS are nothing but a cruel joke for the homeless people
who are battling mental health problems. I'll be glad for
the day when our government wakes up and starts dealing
with real issues like providing dignified housing as a starting
point to help people put their lives back together. How
many times do we have to continue repeating these obvious
things?" "Our current legislation
has developed over many years, through consultation to improve
the delivery of mental health care, and the incorporation
of legal safeguards to protect the rights guaranteed under
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The proposed
measures to permit Community Treatment Orders will not ensure
people will have access to the best treatments available,
including access to the best medication with the fewest
side effects, nor will it provide early intervention by
knowledgeable health care workers. Further, using resources
to forcibly treat individuals (or to track down people who
choose not accept the prescribed treatment) diverts attention
from the need to ensure a better continuity of mental health
care, and access to a range of resources, for those who
require them." "Living in the community
gives us the right to make decisions about our own lives.
All of us have both rights and responsibilities as citizens;
and, there are laws to ensure that criminal transgressions
are duly addressed. But, when a society begins passing laws
that infringe on the civil rights of a distinct group we
violate ethical codes, human rights and chip away at the
moral fabric of that society. Community treatment orders
do just that: Orwellian laws for a group of citizens who
will be left with fewer rights than the rest of society.
Undoubtedly, this will result in fewer people wanting to
seek help from a system that blatantly espouses disrespect
and disempowerment; and fewer people wanting to work in
a system that turns support into whistle blowing and paternalism."
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