Involuntary care safeguards often missing, B.C. Ombudsperson says

Ombudsperson Jay Chalke speaks during a press conference in Victoria, B.C., on Thursday, April 6, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

A report by British Columbia’s Ombudsperson warns that legal safeguards designed to protect patients receiving involuntary mental health care aren’t being applied consistently across the province, with some heath authorities failing to provide the required documents for more than half of their patient files.

The report says an audit of Health Ministry and health authority files from 2024 found a “significant” number of missing documents, sometimes including the reasons for a patient’s admission and material about treatment decisions and consent.

It says there has been “steady progress” on protecting the legal rights of patients since an investigation by the ombudsperson in 2019, but medical staff continue to admit patients against their will “without completing the required paperwork.”

Ombudsperson Jay Chalke says involuntary admission is an “extraordinary power” and the required safeguards “must be completed 100 per cent of the time, in each and every case.”

The report highlights problems with completion rates for a document known as Form 5, which requires assessment of a patient’s ability to consent and outlines a proposed course of treatment.

It finds “significant variation across health authorities,” with several missing required forms for more than half of audited patient files.

The audit found the Provincial Health Services Authority had the highest completion rate at 92 per cent, while Northern Health reported the lowest at 34 per cent.

B.C. Health Minister Josie Osborne says she has directed health authorities to ensure “that they are doing everything possible to make sure that forms are filled out completely and accurately and in a timely manner.”

Osborne, who was speaking at an unrelated news conference in Victoria, says the government has made what she called “enormous progress” since the initial report in 2019 on the subject, but acknowledged “there’s always more work to do.”

This report by Wolfgang Depner, The Canadian Press, was first published Jan. 26, 2026.