AHP readers will be interested in a new article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal: “Confinement and certificates: Consensus, stigma, and disability rights” by FM Sposini.

This paper investigates the connection between contemporary mental health documents used in Canada and certificates of insanity employed in Victorian England. Considering forms for involuntary confinement, it highlights a remarkable history going back to the era of asylums, eugenics, and empires. In the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), this article reminds doctors and policy makers in Ontario of the insidious legacy of stigmatizing practices in contemporary mental health laws.