The Mental Health Court: A Personal Response

I personally feel that the Nova Scotia Government is taking a step in the right direction.

One of the symptoms of schizophrenia, which affects approximately 50% of the people with the illness, is that they do not have insight into their illness. The person does not believe that they are ill. As a result of this they will not seek treatment and will refuse treatment if it is offered to them.

When this is the case they are in a state of psychosis. Sometimes as a result of their psychosis they break the law. Some of the crimes are trivial and some of them are very serious.

The question is: If a person commits a crime as a result of their psychosis, are they responsible for that crime? Some say yes and there are some who say no. If a person, for example, is hearing voices from God telling him to commit a serious crime, and he really believes these voices and commits the crime, is he responsible? If the person is brought to trial and found guilty should he spend years in prison with hard core criminals? If a person is sent to prison he may not receive any treatment for his illness. He would have to live in prison and at the same time live in a state of psychosis. Does a person with schizophrenia deserve to suffer for years for a crime that was committed while in a state of psychosis? In my mind, no.

This is why we need a mental health court, to help those who commit crimes while in a state of psychosis and to see to it that they receive treatment for their illness. They are not criminals. They do not make that conscious decision while in their right minds. They deserve compassion and mercy. Once they get well then they will personally have to deal with what they have done.

I believe that this mental health court will determine whether someone was in a state of psychosis when the crime was committed and will see to it that the person will not be put in prison but will receive treatment for their illness. Hopefully, the treatment given to them will help them to recover from their illness and allow them to become productive members of society and live a life of meaning and purpose, perhaps even work and pay taxes. A recovering consumer can contribute much to society. If someone is put in prison for a crime committed in a state of psychosis it would definitely be a totally wasted life. The person might as well be dead. Living in prison in a state of psychosis would be a living death, physically alive but mentally and emotionally dead.

Mental health consumers need to be shown mercy, not punishment, when a crime is committed while in a state of psychosis.