In Quebec, a health care institution must go to court to hospitalize someone whose mental state poses a danger, or to treat someone found incapable of consenting to care. These measures are meant to be exceptional, yet they are becoming more common in Canada and abroad. Their impact on patients, on the therapeutic relationship and on rights and human dignity remains little understood.
“People who are hospitalized or treated against their will are rarely heard, even though these procedures seriously infringe on their liberty and can be traumatic,” says Professor Bernheim, Canada Research Chair in Mental Health and Access to Justice. “We wanted their perspectives to be our starting point. Any examination of the law and of care practices has to begin with what patients actually go through.”
Soigner et contraindre is available free of charge, in French, on Jurivision.ca. It was designed for law and health sciences students, community organizations and mental health professionals, as well as anyone who wants to better understand these issues.
An interdisciplinary approach grounded in lived experience
The Docu-Course opens with the testimony of Gisèle, a woman who was placed under treatment orders while experiencing homelessness. Gisèle agreed to share her experience on the condition that she could not be identified. Her interview was transcribed and stripped of any identifying details, and her words are voiced by an actress.
Her story runs like a thread through the course’s many themes: coercion and its effects on the therapeutic relationship, barriers to accessing healthcare, the stigma faced by people living with mental health conditions, racial discrimination and its impact on health, the evolution of mental health law, and Indigenous perspectives on mental health and healing.
Professor Bernheim conducted filmed interviews with mental health professionals, including forensic psychiatrist Marie-Frédérique Allard; criminal and health law lawyers, among them Jean-Pierre Ménard; a notary; and two University of Ottawa professors, Eva Ottawa of the Civil Law Section and Jude Mary Cénat of the School of Psychology.
Where research meets documentary filmmaking
The project brings together academics (Professor Bernheim and Edith Perrault, a doctoral candidate in law at the University of Ottawa) and audiovisual professionals (the Jurivision team and filmmaker Marie-Hélène Panniset).
“A documentary can do what a textbook or a lecture can’t,” says Étienne Trépanier, Senior Manager, Educational Innovation and Mobilization, at the Civil Law Section, and Director of Jurivision. “It lets us hear, in a human and engaging way, from people who have experienced coercion and from those who support them, and then bring those perspectives into conversation.”
The format is built to travel well beyond law and health sciences faculties. “We want it to reach healthcare settings, community organizations and law firms, the places where these issues play out every day,” he adds.
The project was made possible with financial support from the Fonds d’études notariales of the Chambre des notaires du Québec, the Law Foundation of Ontario and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Explore the Docu-Course: https://jurivision.ca/courses/soigner-et-contraindre/