31 Mar Mental Health Class Action – Ending Stigma and Discrimination

Lawsuits which may be too expensive or too difficult for one person can become viable when people file an action together.  This is called a Class Action.  A class action gives the individual the strength of numbers when taking action against defendants who often have more resources.

Acheson Sweeney Foley Sahota has a long and storied involvement with class actions in British Columbia. Not only did our firm contribute to the drafting of the Class Procedures Act, which governs class action in this province, but in 1995 we also filed the first two class action lawsuits in BC.

British Columbians with mental illnesses face unacceptable systemic barriers in accessing quality health care in this province. These barriers result from the stigmatization and marginalization of mental illness in the provincial healthcare system. Due to stigma and prejudice, BC’s current healthcare system unjustly treats persons with mental illnesses worse than others. These individuals receive lower quality healthcare, or are deterred from seeking healthcare altogether.

In 2018, Acheson Sweeney Foley Sahota filed a class action lawsuit against the BC government on behalf of British Columbians who suffer from mental illness, alleging that the government violated their constitutional rights by discriminating against them (K.O., By Her Litigation Guardian J.O., and J.O v. The Attorney General of British Columbia).

This lawsuit does not challenge the authority or propriety of the BC government in administering a single-payer healthcare system. Rather, the class members allege that the government cannot administrate the healthcare system in a way that discriminates against mentally ill persons.

The proposed representative plaintiff, K.O., is a minor represented by her litigation guardian and father J.O., who is also a plaintiff in the action. K.O. was formally diagnosed with obsessive compulsive-disorder at age seven, and was later also diagnosed with depression. She has attempted suicide multiple times. Her mental illnesses pose an ongoing risk to her physical well-being and life. With the support of her family, she has actively and continuously sought treatment for her mental illnesses throughout her life. Yet her prognosis for improvement is poor because despite her best efforts, she has not received high quality treatment or care.

In stark contrast, K.O.’s older sister suffers from Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare form of cancer. The older sister faced no stigmatization or other systemic barriers, and received high quality medical treatment for her physical illness. Because of this discrepancy, the older sister enjoys a much better prognosis than K.O. In other words, BC’s current healthcare system is such that the sister with mental illness faces systemic stigmatization that severely impedes her recovery and exacerbates the risk to her long-term health, while the sister with physical illness faces none of these barriers and receives speedy, effective treatment. The daughter with a rare cancer has an excellent prognosis, while the daughter battling mental illnesses languishes due to a lack of treatment and resources.

This lawsuit alleges that the BC government is failing to take appropriate steps to address the impacts of mental illness stigma in the provincial healthcare system. Relative to physical illnesses, the BC government under-funds and over-subscribes treatment providers for mental illnesses, it prioritizes physical illnesses in funding decisions, it fails to provide sufficient resources to ensure an adequate supply of qualified mental health professionals, and it fails to provide an adequate number of sufficiently-resourced treatment and diagnostic facilities for mental illness. There are unreasonably lengthy wait lists for mental illness patients and a lack of appropriate treatment plans. Many treatment providers refuse to provide care, choose to cease care, or provide lower-quality care due to prejudicial and stigmatizing views of mental illness. This lawsuit alleges that the BC government has consequently breached its legal duties towards class members by failing to ensure that persons with mental illnesses enjoy the same reasonable access to high quality health care as everyone else. The aims of this lawsuit are to change this unconstitutional and shameful aspect of BC’s healthcare system, and to compensate those who have suffered as a result.

If you would like to join this Mental Health class action, please contact our firm at (250) 384-6262.