• Involuntary Patient: Before you become an involuntary patient, a doctor must assess you and place you on a Form 3 (Certificate of Involuntary Admission), which lasts for two weeks. The Mental Health Act speaks very specifically to the legal criteria that must be met in order for such a Certificate to be completed. An involuntary patient is not permitted to leave the hospital or psychiatric facility.

• Voluntary Patient: There is no portion of the Mental Health Act that authorizes a psychiatric facility to detain a voluntary patient. In this regard, a voluntary patient can leave the facility at any time, as long as they do not pose a risk to themselves or others. If they were to be identified as posing a risk to themselves or others, then they must be made an involuntary patient (by means of a Form 3) in order to be detained.

• Informal Patient: An informal patient is either a child under the age of 16 years, or someone who is incapable of making treatment decisions for themselves (as defined by the Health Care Consent Act) and who therefore has been admitted to the facility under the consent of another person (i.e. ‘substitute decision-maker’; usually a concerned family member). The informal patient cannot be held against their will in the hospital, however, an informal patient can be made ‘involuntary’ if a doctor deems that a Form 3 is necessary.

Jennifer Hartman, Guest Blogger

Pursuant to Section 15 of the Substitute Decision Act (“SDA”), the PGT can be declared a person’s statutory guardian of property where a certificate is issued under the Mental Health Act (“MHA”) certifying that a person who is a patient of a psychiatric facility is incapable of managing property. Whenever a patient is admitted to a “psychiatric facility”, as defined by the MHA, a physician examines the patient to determine if he or she is capable of managing property. If the physician determines that the patient is not capable of managing property, then he or she must issue a certificate of incapacity. The certificate is subsequently sent to the PGT. As a result, Section 15 is triggered and the PGT steps in as the statutory guardian without any procedural requirement.

Pursuant to Section 16 of the SDA, the PGT can be declared a persons statutory guardian of property where a person requests an assessor to perform an assessment of either their capacity or another person’s capacity. This assessment is done with the view of determining whether the PGT should become the statutory guardian’s of the property. If a person wishes to request that an assessor perform an assessment of another person’s capacity, the person requesting the assessment must: (i) have reason to believe that the other person may be incapable of managing property, (ii) have made reasonable enquiries and have no knowledge of the existence of any attorney under a continuing power of attorney, and (iii) have made reasonable enquiries and have no knowledge of any spouse, partner or relative of the other person who intends to make an application for the appointment of a guardianship of property.

Thank you for reading and I hope my blogs added extra flavour to your favourite morning beverage. 

Rick Bickhram