Mental health

An attending physician may request to consult a medical advisor for their patients who have submitted a WorkSafeBC claim for a workplace injury, occupational disease, or mental health condition. Physicians may request assistance with referrals and imaging, ask about the claim’s status, request clarification about or assistance with WorkSafeBC documentation, or discuss the claims process in general. Similarly, medical advisors may need to contact the responsible physician to discuss clinical care plans for injured workers.

The BC government has introduced amendments to the Mental Health Act to improve the care and safety of youth under the age of 19 who are experiencing severe problematic substance use by providing short-term involuntary emergency stabilization care following an overdose.

Based on the advice of the BC Children’s Hospital and other child and youth advocates, the changes will enable hospitals to keep youth safe immediately following an overdose and are designed to prioritize the best interest of youth and facilitate better connections to voluntary culturally safe care.

The new Royal Columbian Hospital Mental Health and Substance Use Wellness Centre increases access to culturally safe mental health and addictions care. The nearly 37 000-square-metre facility includes 75 inpatient beds along with outpatient services, including a mood disorder clinic, expanded clinics for adolescent psychiatry, reproductive psychiatry and psychiatric urgent referral, group therapy, and neuropsychology clinics.

A recent Arthritis Research Canada study revealed that while administrative health databases are increasingly being used to study mental health in rheumatic diseases, researchers have used different ways to identify patients who have depression and anxiety, making it challenging to draw conclusions and comparisons across publications.