Difference between revisions of "Mental Health Act and Youth (14:VIII)"

Children under the age of 16 can be admitted to a mental health facility via the same provisions that permit detention of adults. Children under 16 who are involuntarily detained have the same right to receive notice (''MHA'' s 34.1). The child must be informed both orally and in writing of the name and location of the facility they have been admitted to, their rights under section 10 of the Charter, and the provisions of sections 21, 25, 31, and 33 of the ''MHA''.  

Section 21 of the ''MHA'' advises the child that if they request to leave the facility, they are entitled to a hearing by review panel within the statutorily mandated time frames to determine whether their detention should continue. The process of a hearing by review panel is described under section 25 of the ''MHA''. Section 31 advises the child that treatment authorized by the director is deemed to be given with the consent of the patient, that they may request a second medical opinion on the appropriateness of their treatment once in each detention period, and that the director must consider whether the second opinion merits changes to the authorized treatment. Section 33 notifies the child that they can apply to the court for a discharge and explains how this action would proceed.  

The MHRB has special obligations in relation to children under the ''United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child''. To honour these obligations, the MHRB has issued [https://www.bcmhrb.ca/resources/ Practice Direction – Children in Hearings]. This Practice Direction describes the procedures that must be followed by all participants to ensure a child-centred approach to review panel hearings when applications are made by children who under the age of 19 years.

* Best Interests of Child:  

::the hearing process is understandable and explained to the child in a developmentally appropriate manner. There should be proportionality between the issues to be resolved and the processes used to resolve them. Decisions affecting a child are to be made in a timely way that is appropriate to the child’s sense of time and in accordance with the ''[https://www.bcmhrb.ca/app/uploads/sites/431/2020/01/BC-MHRB-Rules-of-Practice-and-Procedure-effective-Jan-31-2020.pdf Board’s Rules of Practice and Procedure]''.

* Notice:  

* Process to request that Guardians attend the hearing:  

:: if either party wishes a guardian to be present for all or part of the hearing, the guardian must be available at the beginning of the hearing. The party advocating for the guardian to attend, must, at the beginning of the hearing, provide the reasons to the panel members that the attendance of the guardian is helpful and in the best interests of the child. The panel will then rule on whether the guardian is to be present or not, and will also rule on whether the guardian will be attending in the role of a witness (attendance is limited to providing evidence) or is attending as an observer (cannot give evidence).

== B. Voluntary Admission of Youth ==