Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35531879›Full record

ArticleHealth (London, England : 1997)2023

Involuntary psychiatric treatment and the erosion of consent: A critical discourse analysis of mental health legislation in British Columbia, Canada.

Maja Kolar, Colleen Varcoe, Helen Brown, Rochelle Einboden

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Health (London, England : 1997), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
2.2field-weighted citation impact, top 12% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Wicked Labels, and the Power of Narrative in Mental Health Nursing.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2025
    Article
  3. A call for upstream solutions to the unregulated drug crisis in British Columbia, Canada: Locked up or locked out.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Global qualitative nursing research
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Colleen Varcoe
Helen BrownSchool of Nursing, University of British Columbia, Canada.
Rochelle EinbodenSusan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery, The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Australia.ORCID 0000-0002-9541-899X
The University of Sydney · AUUniversity of British Columbia · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The Mental Health Act (1996) is legislation that directs voluntary and involuntary psychiatric treatment for people experiencing mental health issues in British Columbia (BC), Canada. This critical discursive analysis explores how BC's Mental Health Act (1996) and the Guide to the Mental Health Act (2005) structure involuntary psychiatric treatment and illustrates how the discourses within these texts constitute people experiencing mental health issues as passive recipients of care. Understandings of people experiencing mental health issues as pathological, incapable, vulnerable and dangerous justify their need for protection and the protection of others. Protection is identified as a central legitimising discourse in the use of involuntary psychiatric treatment. Further, these texts define the roles and responsibilities of police, physicians and nurses in authorising and implementing involuntary psychiatric treatment. This analysis describes how this legislation erodes consent and entrenches social marginalisation. Alternatively, discourses of equity have potential to transform health care practices and structures that reproduce discourses of deficit, vulnerability and dangerousness, shifting towards promotion of the rights and safety of people experiencing mental health issues and crises.

Indexed as

Mental DisordersMental HealthBritish ColumbiaCommitment of Persons with Psychiatric DisordersHumansInformed Consentconsentcritical discourse analysisinvoluntary psychiatric treatmentlegislationmental health

Identifiers

PMID35531879
PMCPMC10588262
OpenAlexW4229368545

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.