The Globe and Mail spoke to UCLA Luskin Social Welfare Professor David Cohen about the rise in involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations in Canada.

New laws expanding coercive treatment of mental disorders have recently been implemented, or are under discussion, in several Canadian provinces. Per capita, the nation’s rate of involuntary psychiatric holds is triple the rate in England and 80% higher than in Germany.

“On the face of it, Canada appears to be the country with the highest average rate of involuntary psychiatric detentions in the Western world,” said Cohen, who has conducted extensive research on U.S. psychiatric detention rates. More pressing, he said, is understanding who is being held, why and for how long, and what happens afterward.

Cohen said that the often-harsh realities of involuntary commitment can conflict with how the practice is “sold” to the public as caring and compassionate. “There is a tendency in every country to minimize, downplay, disregard, neglect, ignore” the need for better information tracking and transparency, he said.