Community Treatment Order Review Underway

TORONTO - January 14, 2005 - Four years after the amendments to the Mental Health Act establishing Community Treatment Orders (CTO's) came into force, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care has commenced its legislated review of CTO's. The principal consultants associated with the review are former Provincial Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Consent and Capacity Board, Michael Bay, former Ministry of Health accountant Stephen Dreezer and consultant David Hoff, a community member of the Board. This review will address a series of questions set out in the Mental Health Act. The Ministry has established July 2005 as the target for submission of the final report, which will be made public.

On January 11, 2005, Marshall Swadron and Michael Fakhri of Swadron Associates met with Michael Bay, who came to a meeting of the Mental Health Legal Committee to discussed the review. Chief amongst the concerns raised with Mr. Bay were that rights advice respecting CTO's is only given before the order is in place, when the person subject to the order may not apply to the Board to challenge it and that the orders apply to an overly broad segment of the population.

For more information about the review please click here.