Theresa Wright says her elderly mother's rights are being violated by her care home. (CBC)

The family of a Vancouver care-home patient with Alzheimer's disease fears that she might be forced into a psychiatric unit because they refuse to allow care-home staff to sedate her.

Ellen Elliott, 89, has been a resident of St. Jude's Anglican Care Home for seven months.

Last week, the home's administrators told Elliott's daughter, Theresa Wright, that her mother was extremely agitated, couldn't sleep, and might disturb other residents.

The administrators said Elliott would need to be medicated and if not, she would either have to leave the facility or be sent to a hospital psychiatric ward.

"It seems outrageous that that could happen when we have the best interests of our mother at heart," Wright said Friday. "Yet it could be taken out of our hands and we'd have no control over her health."

Wright said she can't personally give her mother the level of care she needs and has nowhere else to take her.

"Definitely our rights are violated," Wright said.

Invoking Mental Health Act

A professor at Simon Fraser University agrees with Wright.

Criminologist Rob Gordon said the care home could use B.C.'s Mental Health Act to send Elliott to a psychiatric ward. He said the act alienates families and needs revision.

"That's not what [the act] is there for," said Gordon. "It's a misuse, and I think it's a charter violation."

Officials at St. Jude's and Vancouver Coastal Health declined to discuss the case to maintain patient confidentiality.

Wright said the officials told her Elliott could stay at St. Jude's for the weekend, but that the issue would have to be revisited Monday.