HONOURABLE JOSIE OSBORNE
MINISTER OF HEALTH

BILL 32 – 2025

MENTAL HEALTH AMENDMENT ACT (No. 2), 2025

HIS MAJESTY, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of British Columbia, enacts as follows:

Explanatory Note Icon

CLAUSE 1: [Mental Health Act, section 16] extends liability protection to providers of authorized professional services, care and treatment.

1 Section 16 of the Mental Health Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 288, is amended by adding the following paragraph:

(b.4) providing to a patient a professional service, or care or treatment, authorized by the director under this Act to be given to the patient, including treatment described in a consent to treatment form signed under section 8 (a); .

Explanatory Note Icon

CLAUSE 2: [Mental Health Act, section 31] removes a provision that deems patients to have consented to treatment if the director has authorized treatment.

2 Section 31 is amended

(a) by repealing subsection (1), and

(b) in subsection (2) by striking out "A patient to whom subsection (1) applies," and substituting "A patient who is detained in a designated facility under section 22, 28, 29, 30 or 42 or is released on leave or is transferred to an approved home under section 37 or 38,".

Commencement

3 This Act comes into force on the date of Royal Assent.


Explanatory Notes

CLAUSE 1: [Mental Health Act, section 16] extends liability protection to providers of authorized professional services, care and treatment.

CLAUSE 2: [Mental Health Act, section 31] removes a provision that deems patients to have consented to treatment if the director has authorized treatment.