This theme illustrates the buildings and associated landscapes of the Riverview Lands that together are a physical record of the history of the treatment and therapy of the mentally ill in British Columbia from the early 20th Century to today.
The dignified early institutional buildings were designed to simply be places of great solace and care. The physical development of the early landscape with its open vistas, lawns and carefully placed trees were integral to this philosophy, with patient labour to create and maintain the beautiful setting in itself viewed as a therapeutic activity.
As therapy evolved into a practice of science-based medical intervention, new facilities were built specifically to accommodate the new scientific treatment practices. Less emphasis was placed on the therapeutic value of inspiring architecture and landscapes.
As the development of therapeutic drugs ushered in the integration of mentally ill patients into the larger community, society was also rejecting the ideal of the grand institution for the mentally ill. The community-based model for the treatment of mental illness has changed the original use of the site as a place for psychiatric therapy, but the landscape endures, now more and more as a restful recreation space for the surrounding community.
If you feel that the therapeutic history of the Riverview Lands is important, please tell us why.
What buildings and landscape features particularly illustrate the history of therapy at Riverview, and why?
Do you have any comments on this theme?
My great-grandfather and my great-aunt were both Essondale patients in the 20s and in the 40s and 50s. Their stories were hushed up in our family, so I knew very little about this until I did some genealogical research, after which my mother and I went to Victoria and got copies of their old medical records to learn more about their experiences. What we learned was both disturbing and illuminating. As sad as their experiences were, reading about them threw a lot of light onto our family history. It was clear that their mental illness and its treatment had a ripple effect on the rest of the family that has continued down the generations.
I haven’t visited Riverview yet, but I hope that when I gather the courage to do so, the old buildings my relatives lived in will still be standing, so that I can understand more about their ordeals and also bear witness to their suffering.
The history of the treatment of mental illness is often grim, not least because of the stigma surrounding the disease. What better way to combat this stigma than to publicize the history of treatment, its successes and failures, and especially to tell the stories of the many people who suffered through such dark times?
Riverview is an important site for me, personally and historically, and I am sure there are many other people in the Lower Mainland who would say the same.
Riverview should keep as many of its buildings as possible as the amount of history they represent is far more than many traditional museums. Riverview should also continue to be a hospital. Proper housing should be built so that there is a place where patients can get treatment and live in a healing environment. Riverview has positive and negative history so we now have an opportunity to show that we can do the right thing and provide proper care to patients which is what Riverview was originally created for. Let’s let Riverview fulfill its purpose.
The history of Riverview and of the shift toward more community based models is
a troubled and troubling story. We are a group of Canadian scholars and
activists who have spent time over the last 5 years considering the history of
mental health in the de-institutionalization era – some of us hold this history
because we lived it, and others want to investigate it. It is clear to us that
the mental health system that emerged when institutions like Riverview were
downsized has significant limitations and that those deemed “mentally ill” continue
to be profoundly marginalized. We would like to see the Riverview site
preserved as a testament to this difficult history and it be used as well in
the real spirit of the word ASYLUM – with short term non-medical safe houses
where people in crisis to go and receive help, a nexus of patient-staffed
businesses, and housing units that accommodate a range of needs, but share an
emphasis on dignity, choice and community.
The history of the treatment of psychiatric patients is chequered. There are things to be proud of at Riverview – the enlightenment of its founders re: providing a big, beautiful, green haven for some of society’s most difficult-to-care-for people – and there are dark chapters never to be repeated. We need to remember the full story, every era and chapter.
To say, for example, that the cemetery can be hived off for development because its headstones have only first names – how disrespectful to patients – is faulty thinking. Desecrating it to hide its shame would be like tearing down Auschwitz or Belsen because what went on there was so inhumane. That the older buildings echo with memories of patients’ inner horrors and their sometimes Draconian treatments adds to the value of the place, to keep us ever on a brighter path and to educate newcomers and the next generations about the road travelled and the distance to go.
The grand-mansion housing of the ‘insane’ was an experiment that is seen largely to have failed. There is nothing wrong with the big, old buildings themselves (beyond egregious neglect of some of them for years), which should be used for other government offices, research, public-use spaces, etc.
The experiment of putting all psychiatric patients into community housing has proven, rather quickly, to also have failed for many. To have them in the correct size of housing on the Riverview lands, while the community moves in to use the large buildings, is a wonderful, better interpretation of bringing patients and community into closer contact. It will help immensely to overcome the stigma, and to do this in the Tri-Cities area, which has no NIMBY problems at all with having a major psychiatric facility in its midst, will be such a win-win.