Applying to the MHARB
The Mental Health Act Review Board (MHARB) helps to protect the rights of people who are involuntarily held under the Mental Health Act.
If a patient or a person on their behalf wishes to appeal a decision made by their doctor, they can contact the MHARB.
The MHARB protects the rights of people held involuntarily in a health facility under the Mental Health Act.
You can apply to the MHARB:
- To cancel any certificate issued under the Mental Health Act:
- Certificate of Involuntary Assessment: to have the person under the certificate released from the health facility.
- Certificate of Involuntary Admission or Renewal Certificate: to have the patient released from the hospital.
- Assisted Community Treatment Certificate: to have the patient return to the hospital for care and treatment, instead of receiving care and treatment in the community.
- Short Term Leave Certificate: to have the patient return to the hospital, instead of being in the community.
- Treatment Decision Certificate: to allow the patient to make their own treatment decisions.
- Certificate of Mental Incompetence: to have the patient make their own decisions about their estate.
- To appoint a different substitute decision maker than the one appointed by the doctor.
- To authorize the doctor to perform a treatment or procedure that the patient or substitute decision maker does not want.
- To settle issues around Assisted Community Treatment or the conditions outlined in the Community Treatment Plan.
- To remove limits that have been placed on a patient’s rights.
The Review Board also holds mandatory hearings for patients who have been involuntarily admitted to hospital for six months in a row, without a prior review by the Review Board. The mandatory hearings assess if the person still meets the criteria to be an involuntary patient, or if the Certificate of Involuntary Admission can be cancelled so that the patient can be released from the hospital.