If Prime Minister Harper gets his way and wins a majority in this year’s federal election, he promises to move forward on his “tough on crime” assault on mental health. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson was quoted as saying up to 80% of Canadian inmates suffer from some form of mental illness. The answer according to the Conservatives is to build more jails. The reaction met by the Canadian Psychiatric Association was an open letter to the editor published January 26, 2011 in the Globe and Mail. “The Canadian Psychiatric Association (To Heal and Protect – Jan. 22) agrees with the warnings of Canada’s Correctional Investigator that the scarcity of treatment for mentally ill inmates is a growing crisis and that getting tough on crime by locking up more Canadians as proposed by the federal government will aggravate the problem.”
Health Canada claims 20% of Canadians will experience some form of mental health illness in their lifetime. Canada currently has no national strategy on Mental Health but has in 2007 under Harper given funding towards a new Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC). The commission is an at arms length body of professionals and associations given the task of developing a national strategy
Every other G8 partner has addressed mental health nationally in some form.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), health care costs and costs associated with uninsured services and time off work adds up to $14.2 Billion annually. These costs say nothing about the enormous expenses within our judicial system. From enforcement, lawyers, judges, courts, prisons and treatments, the costs can easily be in the tens of billions. These costs are sure to escalate without any preventative or early detection strategy in place.
Every other G8 partner has addressed mental health nationally in some form.
According to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), health care costs and costs associated with uninsured services and time off work adds up to $14.2 Billion annually. These costs say nothing about the enormous expenses within our judicial system. From enforcement, lawyers, judges, courts, prisons and treatments, the costs can easily be in the tens of billions. These costs are sure to escalate without any preventative or early detection strategy in place.
With Harper’s plan we should expect more prisons, more costs within our judicial system, continued health care cost escalation, and most tragically more VICTIMS! When a crime is committed by an individual (whether they have a mental health illness or not) there are always victims. PM Harper’s plan actually counts on having more victims. Shouldn’t our Prime Minister be trying to prevent crime and reduce the amount of victims?
I don’t claim to have an answer on how to detect mental illness before a crime committed and victim created, but all kinds of mental health organizations do, including the newly formed Mental Health Commission of Canada. Experts within the mental health field can develop a strategy to reduce victims, to reduce crime, and to compassionately treat individuals with mental health illnesses through a new national strategy. This plan can ultimately save tax dollars too. This really is an issue of appropriating funds towards positive outcomes. I can not speak on behave of the CMHC, but I could guess that the billions the Conservatives say they will spend on jails is not one of them. I have emailed the MHCC for their views on what more jails would mean to Canadians suffering from mental illness. I will post their reply as soon as I hear back.
When I first wrote this post I had mentioned that we do not have a commission on mental health. That was an error and I apologize for that. My good friend "L", who I consider an expert in the field, pointed this error out and also shared some great information about Canada's judicial system in relations to mental health.
here is some great input from "L". This is exactly the conversation we need to having and thank "L" for this wisdom...
Here is a great piece also forwarded...
Source: Information on the prison system and the mentally ill taken from the article “Mentally Ill Stuck on a Street-to-Jail Shuttle,” by Sue Bailey and Jim Bronskill, The Globe and Mail, November 17, 2006
When I first wrote this post I had mentioned that we do not have a commission on mental health. That was an error and I apologize for that. My good friend "L", who I consider an expert in the field, pointed this error out and also shared some great information about Canada's judicial system in relations to mental health.
here is some great input from "L". This is exactly the conversation we need to having and thank "L" for this wisdom...
""I believe CPA and other organizations would suggest that the answer to overcrowding is not more jails (as proposed by Harper) – but to get those who don’t need to be in jail (mentally ill offenders) out and living in the community under supervision with significant resources provided: housing, psychiatric & Psychological resources (meds and therapy), etc."
"In jail (federal, rarely provincial), treatment is made available – but is ultimately optional. On parole and living in the community, treatment (therapy) can be a condition of parole (e.g., you go back to jail if you don’t attend therapy). Getting people out of jails helps the overcrowding issue – and it is cheaper to have them supervised and on parole in the community than in jail – but supervision is weak. Parole officers have too many individuals on their case loads and SO many parolees violate conditions of their parole and end up back in jail on new charges after having committed additional offenses while being “supervised” in the community."
Here is a great piece also forwarded...
Prisons Instead of Mental Health Facilities
The number of federal inmates identified as mentally ill has climbed significantly in the past decade. This increase coincides directly with the closing of mental health institutions to save money and the lack of effective replacement programs. The closing of mental health institutions was partly in response to criticisms that the mentally ill were stuck in asylums with little likelihood of improvement. Michael Kirby, a retired senator and head of the Canadian Mental Health Commission, believes that as a result of the closures, the streets and prisons have become the asylums of the 21st century. John Bradford, a forensic psychiatrist who teaches at the University of Ottawa, agrees. He believes that a lack of acute-care services means the mentally ill and unstable are increasingly placed in jails alongside hardened criminals. Unfortunately, the stress of prison often brings on a psychotic episode, and the mentally ill inmate ends up being placed in a segregation cell. The senior manager of mental health for the prison service, Jane Laishes, admits that it is possible for a mentally ill inmate to serve an entire sentence without being thoroughly diagnosed or treated.
References
http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?cid=6-20-23
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