If the province decides to move forward with a pilot program that requires people with mental health and addiction issues to enter treatment, the City of Windsor wants to participate.

At the end of Monday’s city council meeting, councilors agreed to have staff write a letter to the province expressing Windsor’s interest in being consulted and considered for participation in any type of pilot project that arises.

“The current system is not working,” Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said after the meeting.

“No city has all the resources necessary to deal with the problems we see on our streets… (for) some extreme cases, institutionalized mental health care has a role to play.”

Downtown councilor Renaldo Agostino, who created the motion, also said the letter should highlight Windsor’s support for the project. recent movement adopted by the Ontario Big City Mayors’ Group on mental health, homelessness and addictions.

This motion calls on the provincial and federal governments to do more to address the crisis across Ontario, including by reviewing and updating the existing Mental Health Act, strengthening and expanding mandatory treatment programs and by prohibiting the public and open use of illicit substances.

Brampton recently requested a provincial pilot project

The Conversation Around Involuntary Treatment in Ontario intensified earlier this month after City of Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown asked the province to allow involuntary treatment.

He proposed a pilot project that would allow first responders to involuntarily place people with serious addictions, mental health disorders and brain injuries in a psychiatric facility, if a doctor deems it necessary.

That would require changes to the province’s Mental Health Act, something Premier Doug Ford has said he is open to.

At this time, the provincial government has not announced that it will launch any pilot program related to involuntary treatment.

Currently in Ontario, an involuntary patient is a person who is detained in hospital without their consent and cannot leave without permission. This happens after a psychiatric evaluation determines that the person’s mental illness could cause them to harm themselves or others. There is a process involved which authorizes the person to contest this decision.

Dilkens says he thinks institutionalized care is beneficial in extreme cases and is not in favor of “sending a bus into town to pick up every person who may be addicted or has strange behavior, that’s not what this is about, that’s not what I support.”

But institutionalized care raises legal and medical questions.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, a registered charity that advocates for civil liberties and human rights, said the strategy was “unconstitutional” and “illegal.”

Meanwhile, in Windsor-Essex, health officials have sounded the alarm over an increasingly toxic drug crisis that is straining the health-care system.

In 2023, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit recorded 1,189 drug-related emergency room visits.

Although this number is likely higher as the October, November and December visits could not be properly recorded as the systems were down due to a cyber attack at that time.

British Columbia expands involuntary care

British Columbia has already done this.

Under the Mental Health Act, a person can be detained in a psychiatric facility if a doctor deems it necessary to protect the health and safety of themselves and others.

Last month, the British Columbia government said it expand involuntary care and open “high-security” facilities to house people detained under the Mental Health Act across the province.

The premier said mental health units in correctional facilities would open across the province and there would also be regional facilities to provide long-term care and housing for people with mental health needs .

Following the announcement, the British Columbia chapter of the Canadian Mental Health Association issued a statement expressing concern.

He says there isn’t enough evidence to show whether involuntary treatment for people with substance use disorders is effective. Adding that instead, “existing evidence actually suggests that involuntary treatment results in an increased risk of death from drug poisoning upon release.”

He continued to say he was concerned the province’s decision to detain more people without addressing gaps or inefficiencies in care would not lead to positive outcomes.