Submission from the Public Guardian and Trustee (March 11, 2014)

Thank you for holding a consultation on disability issues. I have reviewed your website and noted further details on the consultation.

I would just like to add to the mix, the importance of considering the protection of the legal rights and citizenship of adults who are living with various cognitive disabilities.

The Public Guardian and Trustee receives referrals where there are concerns about an adult’s mental incapability to make their own financial/legal and/or health and personal care decisions due to the effects of various types of dementias, brain injuries, mental health conditions, and intellectual disabilities.

BC’s Adult Guardianship Legislation is comprised of four Acts that were crafted together to:

· Provide adults with an opportunity to plan ahead should they ever become mentally incapable (Representation Agreement Act)

· Outline a clear process for adults to consent or refuse consent to proposed health care with a process to be followed if an adult is not mentally capable of making the health care decision (health care consent provisions of the Health Care (Consent) and Care Facility (Admission) Act)

· Provide for a response to adult abuse, neglect and self-neglect for adults who are unable to seek support and assistance on their own due to a physical restraint, disability, or an illness, disease or other condition impacting their ability to make decisions (Part 3 of the Adult Guardianship Act and sections 17 – 19 of the Public Guardian and Trustee Act)

· NOT IN FORCE - Provide a clear process to be followed by health care providers for admitting adults to care facilities (care facility admission provisions in Part 3 of the Health Care (Consent) and Care Facility (Admission) Act)

· NOTE IN FORCE - Modernize the process by which a person becomes an adult’s permanent guardian where that is the most appropriate solution, that includes increased due process and legal rights at multiple steps along the way (Part 2 of the Adult Guardianship Act)

The legislation is guided by the principles and presumptions outlined in ss. 2-3 of the Adult Guardianship Act which are about finding the least intrusive, most effective means of supporting adults, and the presumption that, regardless of diagnoses, adults are presumed to be mentally incapable until the contrary is demonstrated.

This legislative package has been hailed as important rights legislation in BC but it remains incomplete, with care facility admission and the complete package of modernized guardianship provisions unproclaimed. This continues to leave a big gap in the protection of the legal rights and interests of adults who may be mentally incapable.

Alison Leaney │ Provincial Coordinator, Vulnerable Adults Community Response

Services to Adults │ Public Guardian and Trustee