Thank you for that. I think my colleagues on the panel here are well aware of our need for more data collection in real time, so that we will know exactly what's happening and what the appropriate, if possible, response is to that local condition. I have experience only with Vancouver, as well as the Northwest Territories. One of the issues that may be relevant for us across Canada is what I saw when large numbers of people with mental illnesses were released from large psychiatric hospitals into the community—but not to a lovely community. What were they released into? They were released into the inner city in Vancouver.
These vulnerable people were released into SROs. They were released into drug use. They were introduced to drug use, which, as I described, actually has some psychometric effects on the patients that they enjoyed. Within a month of being released, they were using injection drugs. Within three months, they were HIV-positive.
That was a policy decision. That was not something that those patients sought. How we care for people with vulnerabilities, whether they are psychiatric, trauma or culturally destroyed backgrounds, is really important. I think we need to think about those policies, and their potential effects on vulnerable people, before we make them willy-nilly.
The latest is, “Let's close all the institutions.” Very good point, but what do we replace them with? Currently, in Vancouver, what do we replace our psychiatric care with? It changes monthly. If I'm on the psychiatric ward in St. Paul's Hospital, the psychiatrist will say, “I actually don't know where I'm sending this vulnerable patient now.” They need psychiatric housing. It's changed so much. We need a robust system everywhere, but we need to be careful, and think thoroughly about what our policies are going to do to these vulnerable people.