An estimated 150,000 Canadians experience involuntary psychiatric interventions every year. Yet health authorities don’t track who they are, or whether their lives improve or worsen from forced treatments, which usually come in the form of tranquillizing drugs with potential long-term adverse effects that can include diabetes, motor dysfunction and cognitive impairment.
What’s more, while some family members told me they fervently believed a loved one could be helped by forced treatment, that is sadly unlikely. As summarized by a 2019, there is “little evidence” that such interventions “confer any clinical benefits,” making it “paradoxical” that they “continue to be used extensively.” Worse, forced interventions are “often associated with negative outcomes” and experienced as “highly distressing and even traumatic.