Thank you for your question on mental illness and mental disorder. In general discussions, everyone—laymen and people like me—would all use the term “mental illness”. When it comes to amending a code, especially in the Criminal Code and the criminal justice system, we were advised that if we go with “mental disorder”, it would broaden the definition of “mental illness” and allow for flexibility as new cases are identified. These would still fit under the terminology of “mental disorder” as it relates.... As I said, this is still under “unless otherwise specified”. If the judge determines that there is no relevance, I would say that the probation officer must have looked at this and said that mental health issues or mental disorder are not relevant to this case and, as such, there is no need for services to be provided.
However, most of the indications that we have seen as a result of the studies are that a lot of individuals, especially young individuals between 18 to 24, who end up in the system actually do demonstrate mental illness or mental disorder issues.
Thank you.