The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) supports the proposed recommendation of the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) to indefinitely delay the inclusion of mental illness as a sole underlying condition for MAiD. Over the past number of years, CAMH has made several submissions to government committees related to MAiD and mental illness, all of which have raised concerns about the proposed expansion. The three principal concerns are:
- The lack of established criteria, or consensus amongst psychiatrists, for if or when a mental illness should be considered irremediable;
- Disagreement amongst physicians on if or how a request for MAiD can be differentiated from suicide intent;
- Mental health care has been, and continues to be, significantly underfunded compared to physical health care in our country, making it difficult for people to get the right care, when and where they need it.
Only when we have evidence-informed, consensus-based criteria for determining the irremediability of a person’s mental illness, and for distinguishing between a request for MAiD and suicide intent – and only when such criteria can be introduced into a well-resourced mental health system – will it be possible to offer safe, adequate and equitable MAiD services to people whose only medical condition is mental illness. To support these efforts, CAMH will continue to work with government, including sharing new evidence and research on irremediability, suicide and MAiD as it becomes available.
For further details on our position, please see our submission to the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying on April 28th, 2026.