Community treatment orders and Nova Scotia - the least restrictive alternative?

Introduction

Community treatment order, community committal, involuntary outpatient commitment, mandatory outpatient treatment, leave certificates: these are all similar confines used to define a legal tool or mechanism generally used in mental health reform legislation. Generally, a community treatment order [hereinafter CTO] is issued through a medical practitioner where there is legislative authority with the binding force of a court order. It coerces a person with a serious mental disorder to comply with a treatment program in the community as an alternative to involuntary