The Forensic Psychiatric Regional Clinics, located throughout British Columbia, help ensure that people who have come into contact with the law and live with significant mental health and substance use issues get the care, support and treatment they need.
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Care teams at the Forensic Psychiatric Regional Clinics provide mental health and substance use treatment and assessment to people who are in conflict with the law, whom we call forensic clients and patients.
The assessments we provide include evaluations of a person's fitness to stand trial, evaluations of criminal responsibility for a crime, and expert forensic pre-sentence psychiatric and psychological assessments. We provide these assessments at the request of the courts.
We also provide monitoring for people who are subject to the BC Review Board, which provides legal oversight to people in B.C. who have been found not criminally responsible for a crime or unfit to stand trial due to a mental disorder. This monitoring includes making sure that people are following their treatment as well as the conditions set by the BC Review Board, which might include living where directed or abstaining from drugs and alcohol.
Forensic Psychiatric Regional Clinics cater to individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorders who have come into contact with the law. Many clients and patients at the Forensic Psychiatric Regional Clinics are referred to us by the courts and are facing specific legal conditions.
Others have previously received treatment at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital,
but have received a “conditional discharge” from the BC Review Board.
A conditional discharge means that someone who has been
found not
criminally responsible for a crime or unfit to stand
trial due to a mental disorder is well enough to leave the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital,
but must still live where the BC Review Board directs and participate in monitoring
and ongoing treatment. To learn more about the BC Review Board’s role with our
clients and patients, visit the BC Review Board website.
We believe that people, when properly supported, have the ability to manage most aspects of their lives. We focus on people's strengths and resources instead of on symptoms and problems. Clients and patients are key member of their treatment teams. Treatment is not happening to them, but with them — they are active participants.
In addition to supervision and monitoring, clinics provide the following mental health and addiction treatment services:
- Expert clinical forensic psychiatry and psychology assessments
- Treatment and counselling for mental illness, substance use, and concurrent disorders (a combination of a severe mental illness and addiction)
- Opioid agonist therapy
- Nursing support
- Counselling for concurrent disorders
Care team members include the following:
- Psychiatrists
- Physicians
- Psychologists
- Nurses
- Counsellors
- Social workers
Our care is evidence-based, which means it is informed by research, and trauma-informed, meaning staff and physicians work to ensure that people in our care feel safe, secure, and supported. Trauma-informed care is especially vital among forensic clients and patients given most of them have encountered stigma, trauma or adverse childhood experiences.
Most care services are provided at six community clinics in Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Prince George, Kamloops and Surrey. We also provide care through a number of satellite sites elsewhere in B.C.
