‘i want my freedom back’ — windsor involuntary hospitalization rates higher than canadian average
9 minute read
staff members at hotel-dieu grace healthcare's toldo neurobehavioural institute put fresh bedding in a unit on friday, may 1, 2026.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
anita is upset. she’s confused. she doesn’t want to be here.
the struggling windsorite spent months in hospital against her will this year after a mental breakdown and ambulance ride to the emergency department.
she’s among thousands of people involuntarily hospitalized for mental health reasons over the last few years in windsor-essex, where it happens at greater rates than the canadian average. and canada has a higher rate per capita than most western countries, according to one expert.
“i just want my freedom back,” said anita (not her real name), who told the star in february over the phone from the mental health unit at hotel-dieu grace healthcare.
“i want to go home. i just want to live my life.”
anita said her first involuntary hospital stay was about two years ago. she also spent part of this year at windsor regional hospital and hotel-dieu grace healthcare.
anita, who lives on disability benefits, said she has been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd), and bipolar disorder.
“about 15 years ago, i wasn’t having problems but i just got depressed,” said anita. “i got on the couch. i’m starving. i can’t get groceries. toilet broke, this broke, that broke. and i can’t do anything about it. and i sit here, stuck every day, trying to fight my way out on $760 a month.”
her hands shake, whether squeezing them in her lap or holding up a booklet of medication to show the collection of pills she must take to a reporter and photographer at her home.
“that’s my nerves,” said anita, recently released from the hospital for the second time this year. “i just get shaky.”
she bounces back and forth from the belief she was unnecessarily hospitalized and other perceived injustices to various conspiracy theories that agitate her.
her tiny windsor home is somewhat scattered.
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end tables are covered by half-empty pop bottles, cigarette packs, and sticky notes. clothes are stuffed in milk-crates against the living-room wall.
“i want you to know my mental health is totally fine,” said anita.
windsor regional hospital’s met campus is shown on friday, december 19, 2025.
trevor wilhelm
/
windsor star
the number of involuntary psychiatric hospital admissions fluctuates in the windsor region, according to data compiled for the star by the canadian institute for health information (cihi).
but the lowest number in the last decade was in 2015-2016, when 1,215 people in windsor census metropolitan area (cma) were hospitalized against their will. it peaked in 2022-2023 at 2,006.
in 2024-2025, which covers the latest figures available, cihi said there were 1,677 involuntary psychiatric admissions in the windsor region. according to calculations using those figures, that is a rate of about 343 per 100,000.
the rate for ontario is 323 per 100,000. in 2024-2025, there were 52,252 involuntary hospitalizations across the province.
across canada — excluding quebec and alberta, which have different data collection and access-to-information rules — 83,105 people were hospitalized against their will last fiscal year.
it’s difficult to calculate a rate for canada without quebec and alberta. but calgary-based journalist and author rob wipond, who has done extensive research on involuntary psychiatric hospitalization, estimates the national rate in 2023-2024 was 317 per 100,000.
that’s the highest rate in the western world, he said.
“that would rank us even higher than the united states, and that’s multiple times higher than most european, u.k., other countries,” said wipond, author of your consent is not required: the rise in psychiatric detentions, forced treatment, and abusive guardianships. “there’s really hardly any comparators there.”
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wipond, who started researching the issue after his father was involuntarily hospitalized in 1997, said canada’s mental health system is often used as a catch-all.
“i had no idea the extent to which commitment powers are used in the school system, in nursing homes, in group homes,” he said. “people are using it as a management tool. somebody gets disruptive, in distress, misbehaving, they call 911, the person gets dragged up to the psychiatric hospital.”
he said that when most people hear “involuntary hospitalization,” they have a picture in their head of someone who is “completely psychotic and violent and out of touch with reality.”
“in fact, it happens to an incredibly wide range of people,” said wipond. “and when it happens to you or someone you know, it can be quite shocking to realize how fast and easily you can lose these most basic rights.”
for most of the people he interviewed, wipond called it devastating.
“whenever we interview people who’ve been through actual forced treatment, they often call it humiliating, frightening, traumatizing,” he said.
ontario’s ministry of health, which oversees the mental health act that provides authority for involuntary hospitalization, has not acknowledged multiple requests since march for information about the topic.
windsor regional hospital also refused to comment or provide basic information, including the number of beds it has for such patients.
“we follow the mental health act, which has plenty of information online about the process,” said steve erwin, windsor regional’s director of public affairs and communications.
josh strong-gates, manager for the inpatient mental health unit at hotel-dieu grace healthcare’s toldo neurobehavioural institute, is shown on friday, may 1, 2026 at the facility.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
hotel-dieu grace healthcare told the star it has a 49-bed inpatient mental health unit, with an average cost of about $600 a day per patient.
the unit’s occupancy rate hovers around 95 per cent or higher. at any given time, about a quarter of those patients are there involuntarily.
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“it’s not ideal to have involuntary patients,” said josh strong-gates, manager for the unit at the hospital’s toldo neurobehavioural institute. “it’s just a reality of working in mental health, unfortunately, with those risk factors.”
hotel-dieu grace healthcare is the region’s tertiary site for mental health, offering specialized advanced care.
after spending time in emergency or acute care, patients come here if more extended treatment is necessary.
“obviously, the goal for us always is to have shared care plans to keep patients involved and a part of their care plan,” said strong-gates.
that is often more difficult than it sounds.
“some individuals want to leave the hospital,” he said. “it’s just the reality of it. they don’t have the insight to know or understand the benefits of being in hospital.”
in some of those cases, he said physicians must “form” people — decide to hospitalize them — under the mental health act.
following an assessment, a doctor fills out a special form to initially hold someone against their will for up to two weeks at an inpatient facility.
“if they believe that the patient is at risk for deteriorating and/or harming themselves or others, they meet the criteria to be formed,” said strong-gates.
when that happens, he said a patient advocate meets with the individual to review the form and offer an opportunity to contest it.
“every patient has a right to contest a form,” said strong-gates.
that happens with a hearing of ontario’s consent and capacity board. if a patient doesn’t have a lawyer, one is appointed.
after the two-week stay, another form holds patients for up to four more weeks if doctors deem it necessary. following that there are renewals for 30, 60, and 90 days. they all follow the same process, including physician assessment, rights advice, and opportunity to contest.
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anita said she was involuntarily hospitalized earlier this year. she called 911 in the midst of a crisis.
“i went in there for adhd, because my thoughts were racing,” she said. “i went in there by ambulance because i had no money for a cab.”
paramedics took her to a windsor regional hospital emergency room. she was then transferred to 3 south, a mental health unit at the ouellette campus.
“i’m here unwillingly,” anita told the star in february, using a communal patient phone in the unit.
“there’s nothing wrong with me except a broken heart. and other than that, i’m fine, but you’re not allowed to get mad. you’re not allowed to have moods.”
despite a history of mental health struggles, she sometimes doesn’t acknowledge it.
“they’re telling me i’m here because of bipolar,” she said from windsor regional hospital.
“but even so, bipolar, we all have good days, bad days, happy days, sad days. you can’t even count bipolar as a mental disease.”
a couple of weeks later, she was sent to hotel-dieu grace healthcare.
josh strong-gates, manager for the inpatient mental health unit at hotel-dieu grace healthcare’s toldo neurobehavioural institute, shown on friday, may 1, 2026, says the facility tries to make patients’ stays comfortable.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
despite images conjured by the movies and terms like “forced hospitalization,” it’s a relatively serene environment. each room is private and clean with a bed, desk, washroom, and big airy window. several patients walk freely down wide, bright hallways.
“we’re trying our best to make the most therapeutic environment that we can for the patient,” said strong-gates. “while they’re here in hospital, their private space is something that they appreciate. so we try to make it as comfortable as possible.”
for patients that are temporarily allowed off the unit, there are also amenities including an on-site gym and the outdoor healing garden. but that depends on where patients are in their treatment.
“it all comes down to safety,” said strong-gates.
there are rules. security is tight.
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the mental health unit at hotel-dieu grace healthcare sits behind a heavy steel door with a re-enforced window, next to a security guard station.
visitors are buzzed in, after meticulous screening. they must sign in and answer several questions from security guards. name? relationship to patient? are you on their visitor list? does the patient’s ecp (essential care partner) know you?
if you are allowed in, you must leave your jacket, wallet, phone, keys and other belongings in a locker outside the ward.
only ecps are allowed in patient rooms. other visitors must remain in common areas. there is no free wi-fi in the unit, “for privacy and confidentiality reasons.”
if you bring anything for the patient you’re visiting — one woman brought a bag of socks for her dad — expect to see it removed piece by piece and thoroughly searched.
banned items include what may seem like obvious no-nos, such as scissors, ropes, and pocket-knives.
but the long list of banned items also includes grocery bags, metal hangers, aluminum cans and any kind of glass — that means picture frames.
you can’t take pictures. you can’t bring food. no phones. no pens or pencils. if you want to write something down, you must ask for a “rubber puncture proof pen.”
some patients can’t have visitors. one man recently drove from london to see a family friend in the unit, thinking he was on the person’s list. after a two-hour drive, he learned the patient wasn’t allowed any visitors.
the hotel-dieu grace healthcare’s toldo neurobehavioural institute is shown on friday, may 1, 2026.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
anita recently spent weeks there.
“my life is cut off,” she said at the time. “i can’t even get outside.”
she was released for a while.
“but then i had to go back for two weeks,” said anita. “so it’s been up and down, up and down.”
she said she landed back in hospital after a police wellness check.
“i have adhd really bad,” she said, noting her racing thoughts.
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an october 2024 report posted on the federal government’s social sciences and humanities research council website says, “while the aim of involuntary admission is to protect the safety of that person and also of the public, people living in poverty or homelessness are overrepresented among those involuntarily admitted”
as well, drug use and addiction often overlap mental-health struggles.
“it always plays a factor,” said strong-gates. “this is inpatient mental health, specifically. but to say that it has no impact would simply not be true. a concurrent-disorders piece is what we would call it. it’s not specific just to mental health. there’s always an aspect of the addictions piece as well.”
anita was released again recently. back at home, she said she felt better.
“just gotta rest from resting,” she said. “i take medication for my nerves and for bipolar, but the whole world’s got bipolar. we’re all moody. happy days. sad days.”
the hotel-dieu grace healthcare’s toldo neurobehavioural institute campus is shown on friday, may 1, 2026.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
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