Riverview,(Essondale) Hospital past, present & future: The Essondale fleet

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Essondale fleet

I was asked to look for some marine based things for the local museum; and I thought, well now is the time to elaborate on a few of the images that I have of some of the marine history of Colony Farm, Essondale. I will just put a small amount here for a start, based mostly on what I could find out about one image in particular. Every picture tells a story they say

The artist Fred Clarke,(17 Jan.,1877 Dawson City, Yukon – 23 June 1960 Riverview) was a frequent contributor to “The LEADER” the patients newsletter. The drawing is from the August 1957 edition. Fred was married to Lois Chapman, and spent the last three years of his life at Riverview, where he left us with some wonderful drawings in THE LEADER.

Witten on the image in the bottom right:

" He was like an old cork from an emptied bottle, tossed by the current of a shallow stream into a shady nook to rest a while.
And here he built a boat, for in the soft shades of twilight he found the voyage has just begun.”

Mr. Daryl Kent built this house-boat during his stay here at Essondale and sailed away in it when he was discharged. This was a tremendous task for one man and we felt the achievement well warranted some recognition.

☜☜ ☸☸ ☸ ☞☞

Daryl Herbert Kent,(20 April 1887, Victoria - 5 March 1962, Vancouver) was the boat builder and owner, whose family left their mark in the Province, especially in Victoria. He ran as an Independent Conservative in the 1933 election and lost.

His father was Charles Herbert Kent (1862-1958)

Daryl’s mother was also born in Victoria, B.C., Georgina Seymour Waitt (1866-1933) was best known for her portrait painting, singing, acting, and wrote, Three girls under canvas, in 1900, which makes her a very early woman author of the Province.

       There is a story that Charles Herbert Kent,(1862-1958)
was sick with typhoid at home, and his childhood friend Georgina, came over to visit him before she went to California for a visit, and she gave him a get well kiss,☺ and months later when Charles was better they married in July 1886

     Georginas’ father, Marshall Wilder Waitt,(1833-1892) was a bookseller, stationer, sheet music, and musical instrument seller

               He gave his son-in-law, Charles Herbert Kent a job, and after M.W. Waitt died in 1892, Charles slowly expanded the business, into Vancouver, and overtime it became known as Kent Music, and the company officially changed its name to "The Kent Piano Company Limited" in 1913.

The residence of Mr. and Mrs. M.W. Waitt on Quadra Street near Herald; Georgina Seymour Waitt, later Mrs. Herbert Kent, and her sister Janet Hibben, later Mrs. Leonard George Henderson, were born. photo:ca. 1890. BC Archives I-76875

To bad that the home above, did not survive it looks really interesting; but a later home of the family does survive at 228 Douglas Street, James Bay, Victoria.

M.W. Wiatt & Co., left us a legacy in some interesting early printed materials.

What follows is a small selection;

Bird's-eye view of Victoria, Vancouver Island, B.C. 1878.
Author: Eli Sheldon Glover,(1844-1920); Published by: M.W. Waitt & Co.

Views of British Columbia and Alaska (189-?)

My favourite, Chinook as spoken by the Indians of Washington Territory, British Columbia and Alaska. For the use of traders, tourists and others who have business intercourse with the Indians. Chinook-English. English-Chinook (c1889)

Prof. Enrico Sorge, solo pianist & orchestral conductor (from London) : professor and teacher of singing and the pianoforte ... : apply at Waitt's Music Store : will be in attendance each day from 2 to 3 o'clock (1886)

Amateur entertainment consisting of vocal and instrumental music and tableaux : assisted by the Band of H.M.S. Triumph, Thursday evening, Feb. 11th, in aid of the funds of the B.C. Benevolent Society, under the patronage of His Honor the lieu. governor, the mayor and city council : musical director, Prof. Enrico Sorge : prices as usual, plan at Waitt's store (1886)

M.W. Waitt & Co,; This was Waitt's first store, Government Street, Victoria.

ca.188? BC Archives A-03473

Waitt & Co., 60 Government Street, Victoria; Thomas H. Hinton & Co., 62 Government Street, Victoria. 1899 BC Archives D-06762

Victoria, Waitt & Co., Music store. ca.189?

[Selling bicycles too ] BC Archives A-03472

M. W. Waitt and Company music store; 1006 Government Street; site of the Royal Bank building, west side of Government Street between View and Fort Streets, Victoria; Herbert Kent was a manager here, may be gentleman in photo.

July 1890. BC Archives A-05683

George Harris, Alfred Huxtable, Fred B. Rivers, Herbert Kent, Estey Bowes; staff of the first M. W. Waitt and Company Music Store; 1006 Government Street, Victoria.

ca1900 BC Archives A-05681

Clockwise from top Left: 1964; Right: 1889; Bottom right: 1917; Middle Left: 1885; Bottom Left: 1909

Daryl’s parents were accomplished singers, stage actors, and enjoyed playing numerous musical instruments, and teaching others the love of their crafts.

Victoria production of "Robin Hood";
Mrs. Herbert Kent, nee Georgina Seymour Waitt, as Dame Durden, Herbert Kent as Little John.

photo John Savannah,(1868-1925) date: 1899. BC Archives G-00173

Victoria production of "Bridal Trap"; Miss Stoddart, Mrs. Herbert Kent, nee Georgina Seymour Waitt, Miss Carter.

photo: John Savannah,(1868-1925) date: 28-29 April 1900. BC Archives G-00198

The Victoria production of "The Bridal Trap"; Mrs. Herbert Kent, nee Georgia Seymour Waitt, as the Marquise.

28-29 April 1900. BC Archives A-05672

Victoria production of "Robin Hood" Mrs. Herbert Kent, nee Georgina Seymour Waitt, as Dame Durden.

Photo: John Savannah,(1868-1925). Date: 1899 BC Archives G-00172

Children of Charles and Georgina:
[ a good overview of the family HERE ]

Daryl Herbert (20 April 1887 - 5 March 1962); Hazel Gladys (18 May 1889 - 19 March 1890); Marshall Aubrey (8 September 1891 - 23 February 1978), m. Doris Harriet Evans; Marjorie Violita Ellen (9 October 1893 - 1983), m. Davies; Charles Truesdell (23 April 1898 - after 1945), m. Thyra Jane.

Four generations of the Kent family; Herbert, holding his grand-daughter Marion, son Daryl and father, Charles.
28 March 1913 BC Archives F-02018

Our industrious boatbuilder was married November 11, 1911 to Jennie Irene Mathe.
She frequently used her middle name, as her given name.

In the 1910 directory for Vancouver; Daryl is manager of the M.W. Waitt Co. Ltd., Vancouver. By 1915 secretary and manager of the Kent Piano Company Ltd., Vancouver.
1920 Daryl is the manager, 1925 secretary of Kent Piano Ltd.

And by1930 he is president of Kent Piano.
But by 1935 he is a salesman for, McDermid, Miller and McDermid; and in 1940 assistant to secretary of the, Abbott House Association. And the last listing for him is in1945 where he is a helper at Vivian Engineering, Vancouver.

Northeast corner of, Hastings and Homer, 399 West Hastings Street, Van., Kent Piano Co., Ltd.

VPL 4712 photo: Leonard Frank, 1929

Kent Piano Company, 558 Granville Street, window display welcoming the Rotarians.

VPL20220 photo: Dominion Photo Co., 16 February 1917

Interior, of the Kent-Roach Co., Fort Street, Victoria, electric lamps, stoves, records, radios and pianos.

photo: Duncan MacPhail. 1943 BC Archives I-00889

[ John Clifford Roach, (1891-1955) worked for the family for many years, and a short-lived partnership from 1942 to 1945 was struck. By 1946 the company was renamed again to Kent's Limited.]

Record department of Kent-Roach Ltd., Victoria.

photo: Duncan MacPhail, 1943 BC Archives I-02503

Daryl passed away on his beloved boat the “ Daryl K.” in downtown Vancouver, after suffering from a paraphysial cyst of the 3rd ventricle, which caused him to go unconscious, and he fell onto a hotplate, which completed the task. [ He probably did not feel any pain ]

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AROUND the FARM

By, Frank Sadler (1 July 1898, West Bridgeport, Nottinghamshire, England – 8 February 1966, Riverview ) Frank spent almost 18 years at Riverview, was single, and is buried in the Riverview cemetery.

       This is New Year’s Day. I have just returned from my annual trip to the old scows by the River Fraser on the way to the Power Line. I have always visited them On the New Year every year with the exception of 1954. I carved my initials on a tree in ‘50, in ‘56 and again in ‘58.

     The fishing from the deck of the old scow was ideal in the Freshets. I used to catch really big fish, mostly “Dolly Vardens”; there were some “Jacks” and one “Sturgeon. This fish was only a baby and weighed a trifle under three pounds, but the fisherman on the point where the rivers, Coquitlam and Fraser join, identified it for me. I let it go again. It is illegal to take a “Sturgeon” less than six pounds in weight. The River Fraser is taking on a new look around the bridge site. There are islands of scaffolding laid out in order across the river. Dredges and motor launches are busy. I counted six cranes operating on these various islands. The culvert under the south dyke on the southwest corner is now completed and seems to be operating efficiently.

         Messrs. Perini Construction camp is gradually expanding and is beginning to take shape as a village with electric light and water supply. There is a pier constructed overhanging the river.
[ Perini was building the Port Mann bridge ]

By the Piggery, the drainage dyke, which was rat infested and all “caved in”, is now receiving constructive attention. As for the rats, the Piggery Foreman who is, comparatively speaking, a young man and also an expert rifle shot, employed his off-duty hours declaring war upon the rats. He must have disposed of literally hundreds of them. There is nothing on record to say there was a bounty on the rats which, incidentally, were as big as cats but I would say that Piggery Foreman sure did a good job. The rats are now very few and far between.

      The Piggery is still operating as usual and the old wooden foot bridge has been demolished. All traffic to Messrs. Perini is now diverted down the Colony Farm Road and around the south dyke.
Christmas Day was peaceful. Santa Claus visited some of the patients with comfort packages. They received all manner of things such as, neckties, socks, pipes, cigarettes, tobacco, handkerchiefs and “what-not”. Some were really nice little tokens. The dinner was Outstanding. There was turkey and dressing, mushroom soup, creamed “spuds” and good old “Plum Duff” and all the trimmings! Thank you !

      I really think that the cooks and the culinary staff should receive a vote of thanks for their conjoint endeavours to bring the Spirit of the Season to everyone. I think it was an immense success.
To the time of writing, New Year’s Day has been perfect. “Nothing to do and all day to do it in.” I did play a game of Snooker and enjoyed it very much. I won! The sun is actually shining, and it is an ideal day for a walk. The old path to the “SCOWS” has not been used very much and time is leaving a heavy mark.

        At the turn of the twentieth century, that same scow was a proud Sternwheeler. It was all decorated and gaudily painted, making its way between Port Mann and Port Dover. Later the engines were rejuvenated and it was employed as a Stump-puller. After that the engines were removed and it became a scow for hauling cut lumber from the mills upstream.

      It now lies, stripped of its worldly grandeur, an ignominious wreck with its ribs all broken and decayed on the bank of the Fraser. When I first saw it, it was like a platform, raised so that the freshets and the tide just tipped the deck level. It was ideal for fishing and I spent many a pleasant afternoon lying on this platform basking in the June sun.

       As it is now, the deck planks have been removed and there is nothing left but the broken shell. My rustic retreat has vanished.

         When I first went down to Riverside, the first thing I did was to help build a “dug-out canoe” and a rowboat. I remember the day I met “Kuro”. He had a boathouse on the River Coquitlam, partially on the reservation, and he showed me how to build the rowboat. This was not the only thing we did; we collected cedar driftwood from the River Fraser and made firewood of it and then we sold it for five dollars a cord. “Kuro” has since been discharged from the Hospital.

       Another source of income was renting rowboats to fishermen. We had quite a “clientele” carrying on until the Hospital authorities decided that it was illegal, burned down the shack and destroyed the boats. We rented the fishing boats for seventy-five cents a day. All this is now a time of the past; gone, never to return.

        I wonder if the section of the airing court, which was levelled last summer for the Bowling court, will be ready for the coming season. It would be quite nice to have a game of Lawn Bowls on our own pitch.

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The LEADER 1961 By: A. LeClerc, S2

A cabin cruiser in the planning stage necessitating the sacrifice of a number of leisure hours working on close arithmetic calculation, has come to full fruition for Mr. George Cook, a journeyman employed in the Essondale garage.

I interrupted him as he was preparing his welding torch, to glean from him the details of his finished project.

The boat is 23 feet long, with a beam of 8 feet, 7 inches, with a speed of 18 knots, which is sufficient to buck the restraining efforts of the Fraser River. From the keel post to the wheel, is a painstaking nautical way of saying what goes into a boat.

The ribs are set in a precise mathematical flare from bow to stern, using the tangent of a circle as a guide to form the graceful sweep which is to reduce the resistance of the water.

It took him a year and a half to build the craft, at a cost of approximately $3,000, when asked if he intended to use "her" as a fish-boat, his answer was "No," she will be used as a pleasure cruiser out of the Fraser into the Sound.

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Dr.Gee,Medical Superintendent's report (ca.early 1950's)

THE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
of the
PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
By: Doctor A. M. Gee, Essondale, B. C.

Click on Chapter headings:
Provincial Mental Hospital, New Westminster, B.C.
Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale, B.C.
Provincial Mental Hospital, Colquitz, B.C.
The Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine
Homes for the Aged
Child Guidance Clinics

It will be my endeavor in this article to present to you an over-all picture of the Mental Health Services of the Province of British Columbia, but before proceeding to this I wish to give you some idea of the magnitude of the problem presented by mental illness, something of the general nature of mental illness, and finally the means of dealing with the problem of mental illness..

In Canada, as in other countries, mental illness takes a very heavy toll. Mental illness is not just a matter of sanity or insanity but rather has many gradations ranging from minor emotional disturbances to complete and total disability. In British Columbia, as in the other provinces, the number of patients in the mental hospitals is equal to the number of patients in all other hospitals from all other causes. There is in Canada at the present time a total of 50,000 patients in the mental hospitals, while in B.C. we have at the present time over 5,000 patients being treated and cared for in our mental hospitals.

In 1947, 13,085 of our citizens were admitted to the mental hospitals of Canada, while in the same year, 1,111 of our own citizens were admitted to the mental hospitals of B. C. Let us not over-estimate this admission rate, however, serious though it may be, but rather direct our attention to the data concerning discharges from the mental hospitals. Of the 1,111 patients admitted to the Provincial Mental Hospital in 1947 we were able to discharge 935, while in 1948 of the 1,260 patients admitted 1,193 were discharged to return to the community. Over half of those discharged, in 1948 were hospitalized for a period of less than 4 months duration.

The cost of maintaining Canada's 43 mental hospitals is in excess of 26 million dollars annually. It is generally conceded that one person in 20, will, during his lifetime, be a patient for a period in a mental hospital, and in addition it is estimated that one person in every ten suffers from some type of serious emotional disturbance at some time in his life history. From these few figures it is possible for one to gain a general impression of the magnitude which the problem of mental illness presents.

On the brighter side of the picture, however, I am pleased to be able to draw your attention to real progress in the field of Psychiatry. In the past few years the mental hospitals have turned increasingly from the simple custodial care of their patients to a program of active treatment and prevention. While the mental hospital still remains the focus of mental health care, the centre of gravity is gradually shifting from the mental hospital to the community where there are, at present, rapidly developing systems for treatment and prevention.

Let us now direct our attention to the general nature of mental illness. Many of you have no doubt thought of mental illness as something strange and remote from your lives, something entirely different from physical discomfort or disease. "Health” may be defined as that condition of the body in which all of the functions are performed normally. "Mental Health" "may be defined as the adjustment of individuals to the world and to each other with a maximum of effectiveness and happiness. In a broad sense this is a very good definition of democracy and we might say that Democracy and national mental health go hand in hand.

Physical health manifests itself inside of your skin. Mental health manifests itself outside of your skin, in your thinking, your feeling, and particularly in your doing and interpersonal relationships. "Mental Health" be further defined as the ability to maintain an even temper, an alert intelligence, socially considerate behaviour, and a happy disposition. Mental or ill health exhibits itself in how you react in regard to life and death, joy and sorrow, blame and praise, love and hate, and fear. All mental illnesses demonstrate disorders in the sphere of the emotions. If a person is able to handle his emotions in relation to those who live about him and be happy, he is mentally healthy.

I would now like to present to you for your better understanding the true parallel that exists between physical and mental health; physical and mental illness. There are certainly as many degrees of mental fitness as there are degrees of physical fitness. Few of us claim to be physically 100% fit all of the time and few of us reach middle age without carrying some minor or major physical disability which to a degree interferes with our ability to function at our maximum capacity. Some of us suffer from minor disabilities which may incapacitate partially or wholly for a short period. Others again suffer from time to time from major disabilities from which we may or may not recover. Again, we have a group of physical diseases which require long periods of active treatment with partial recovery or arrest of the progress of the disease leaving a definite disability and a permanent limitation of function. Such a disease is tuberculosis.

In the realm of mental disease we have exactly the same situation. We all suffer at times from minor emotional discomforts or disabilities. Some of us suffer from more severe mental reactions which may incapacitate us for a time and which require hospital treatment but from which complete recovery is certain. Again, others will suffer from mental symptoms similar in severity to tuberculosis and for this a longer period of hospitalization and treatment will be required with a good outlook for arresting the progress of the disease.

In this mental illness, however, the patient will in all probability never again regain his efficiency 100% and like the arrested tubercular patient will need assistance in rehabilitation and in reorienting himself toward his life situation.

There are indeed as many disabling conditions in psychiatry as there are in general medicine and a true parallel exists between mental symptoms and physical symptoms, mental disease and physical disease. By following this close parallel we should be able to avoid the senseless, shameful notion that mental illness carries with it some social stigma. I would like to pursue this parallel just a little further in order that you may see how the various mental health services are grouped at the active treatment level.

Physical disorders of all types may be classified under the following headings:

1. Developmental defects - i.e.,congenital disabilities.
2. Organic illnesses - (including injuries).
3. Functional illnesses.
4. Infective or toxic illnesses.
5. Degenerative illnesses.
6. Public health - (preventive medicine).

Mental disorders of all types may be classified similarly as follows:

1. Developmental defects - i.e., mental deficiency and subnormality.
2. Organic mental illnesses - (including injuries).
3. Functional mental illnesses.
4. Toxic central illnesses.
5. Degenerative mental illnesses.
6. Mental hygiene - (preventive psychiatry).
In accordance with the categories set forth above our active mental hospital treatment service naturally breaks down into four main divisions.

1. Treatment and education of the subnormal.
2. The treatment of the acutely mentally ill - organic, functional, toxic psychoses (psychotic patients).
3. The treatment of those suffering from degenerative train conditions (senile, arteriosclerotic).
4. Preventive services.

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Provincial Mental Hospital, New Westminster, B.C.

This unit of the Provincial Mental Health Services functions as a training school for the mentally defective and at the present time has a patient population of 653 with no vacant beds. The function of this unit is, of course, the training of the mentally subnormal with the objective being to develop the individual to his maximum capacity. At this hospital there is a modern, five room special school which is staffed by seven fully qualified teachers. As part of the school there is a well equipped gymnasium and auditorium as well as special classrooms designed for the teaching of domestic science and the manual arts. In the program of this school considerable emphasis is placed upon the socialization of the children, employing recreational and social activities in this part pf the training program.

At the present time there is a program or expansion underway at the Provincial Mental Hospital, New Westminster, B. C., consisting of four modern type buildings each of which will have a capacity of approximately 100. It is hoped that the provision of these new buildings will make it possible to relieve some of the over-crowding and also to admit some of the patients who are presently of necessity kept on the waiting list until a bed becomes vacant.

Out of the total population of 653 patients, 140 are participating in the academic training school program. The teaching staff endeavours to provide a special teaching program to meet the individual needs of the population rather than to follow definite grade levels. In addition to the academic program great stress is laid on the teaching of domestic science and manual arts. Cooking, food preparation and serving are, stressed along with sewing, mending, and needle work. In the boys’ division opportunities are provided for the teaching of manual arts and for the older boy there is ample opportunity for learning the various industrial skills and trades associated with the operation and maintenance of the hospital plants.

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Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale, B.C.

This hospital is the largest unit of the Mental Health Services of the Province. It functions as the administration centre and headquarters in both medical and business administration. At the present time it is the admitting centre for all branches and all in-patients are admitted there and are transferred to other units. The first building was opened to receive patients in 1913. The Essondale unit has increased in capacity and size until at the present time it houses in excess of 3,600 patients. Consideration is being given now to the development of an entirely new hospital site to provide the increased care that will be required in the near future. The Mental Hospital at Essondale is classified by the American Hospital Association as a class A hospital. It is in all respects a fully modem hospital with excellent facilities for clinical investigation, diagnosis and treatment of all mental end neurological conditions.

In addition to medical and surgical facilities it offers the advantage of all accepted forms of psychiatric therapy. The occupational therapy program is well advanced, while the pioneering of our recreational therapy program has brought much credit to the Province of British Columbia.

Treatment within the hospital breaks down into,

(1) early and active treatment of the acutely mentally ill with a view to early recovery and rehabilitation;
(2) continued treatment for a large group of patients who will require a prolonged treatment period.
The Social Service Department is actively engaged in working with both of these classes of patients. The Psychiatric Social Service staff numbers ten and a representative of the department visits in the home of all patients admitted from the local area. Representatives of the Welfare Field Service visit in all other areas of the Province. Histories are submitted covering all contacts and activities of the patient in an endeavour to provide a longitudinal section of the individual's life in order that the psychiatrist may have understanding into all of the situational factors bringing about the illness. The individual social service worker keeps in constant touch with the patient during the hospitalization, and acts as liaison between the hospital and the home. Rehabilitation plans are worked out between the psychiatrist and the social service worker end after discharge of the patient further assistance and supervision is provided for him during the initial six month post-discharge period. To further assist in the rehabilitation of women patients a small home unit is maintained in Vancouver where the recovered patient may live a normal, unrestricted home life until she is able to find employment and be self-supporting.

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Provincial Mental Hospital, Colquitz, B.C.

A small continued treatment unit is located at Colquitz, Vancouver Island, housing some 287 male patients. There is no direct admission to this hospital, all patients in residence having been transferred from the hospital at Essondale. The Provincial Mental Home offers complete medical and psychiatric care along with a full program of occupational and recreational activities. Future plans call for the construction of a complete new mental hospital adjacent this site to serve the needs of Vancouver Island and adjacent islands.

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The Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine

This is a new fully modem building to house 325 patients. It is an-active treatment and teaching centre, bringing active treatment to the Patient suffering from the early symptoms of mental Illness in which recovery and rehabilitation may be anticipated within a four month period. The Clinic of Psychological Medicine is a distinct advance from the usual mental hospital type of treatment and is a step closer to the community and general hospital type of care. The clinic houses group specialties representing all branches of medicine, surgery and psychiatry, as follows:

1. Complete x-ray department covering all phases of radiology, including an x-ray surgical suite and special apparatus for cranial and brain studies.
2. Complete clinical laboratories equipped to carry out all types of clinical laboratory investigation, teaching and research.
3. A department of cardiology for the investigation of the heart and cardiovascular system together with instruments for the determination of basal metabolic rate.
4. A complete eye, ear, nose and throat department.
5. A complete neurological department with facilities for electroencephalography.
6. A department of physical medicine which includes all forms of physiotherapy and hydrotherapy and electrotherapy.
7. A modern surgical suite for both general surgery and neurosurgery.
8. A department of psychiatry covering all accepted forms of psychotherapy.
9. A department of occupational therapy with division for male and female patients and providing the necessary apparatus and instructors for a wide range of interesting crafts.
10. A department of recreational therapy staffed and equipped to provide recreational activities to suit the needs and interests of all age groups.
11. A library, housing standard and more popular current works of fiction, under the supervision of a fully qualified librarian.
12. Complete facilities for teaching and lecturing.
The Clinic operates under a separate act of the Provincial Legislature, separate and apart from the Mental Hospitals Act, This new act provides for the admission of voluntary patients who may themselves terminate their hospitalization at will. Otherwise it provides for the admission of patients on the certificates of two medical practitioners without any legal certification or loss of competency on the part of the patient. The maximum period of hospitalization during which the patient may be retained is four months. It is believed that this new intensive approach to the treatment of mental illness will bring psychiatry closer to other branches of medicine and, will do much to gain the confidence of the population in seeking early advice in such matters. It should do much to place mental illness on the same plane as physical illness and help to remove any stigma which uninformed people may have regarding sickness of the mind.

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Homes for the Aged

British Columbia was the first province to set up separate institutions for the psychiatric care of those aged individuals whose aging symptoms are predominately in the mental sphere. These buildings are of special design to meet the problems of caring for the aged. They are two storey, fireproof units with special ramps replacing all stairways. The grade of the ramp is such that it will permit comfortable walking as well as the use of a wheelchair or stretcher. Front entrances are ramped to spacious lawns for outdoor activities. All floor space including ramps is indirectly lighted by coved lighting at floor level. All ramps and corridors are provided with handrails. This type of building has received favorable comment from visitors from all points of the world.

The care of our aging population is rapidly becoming one of the major considerations at the present time. Chief reasons for the increased proportion of the aged in our population at this time are the great advance in medical and surgical care which have prevented death at an early age and increased the average life span. Two thousand years ago the average life span was approximately 25 years. In 1900 the average life span was 49 years, while in 1950 it is 66 ½ years. In 1900 one person in 25 was 65 years of age or older. It is estimated that by 1980 one person in 10 will be 65 years of age or over. Individuals now reaching superannuation age at 65 can look forward to an additional 12 ½ years of life. Unfortunately there is a considerable lag in the prevention and treatment of many of the degenerative diseases associated with the aging process, and particularly in this so in reference to those degenerative diseases producing mental illness in the aged. Much is needed in the way of research into this particular problem.

British Columbia has set up homes for the aged at Port Coquitlam where some 380 patients are housed and at Vernon, B. C. where some two years ago a new unit was opened to care for approximately 250 patients. In the near future it is expected that a third group of units will be opened in northern B. C. to serve the residents of that area.

The foregoing paragraphs have presented a survey of all the facilities for the "in care" of patients suffering from mental illness as operated by the Provincial Government. I would now like to direct your attention to the second aspect of psychiatry which is the preventive or mental health aspect.

Psychiatry was born put of jails, almshouses, and superstition and consequently has had to struggle to establish itself as a scientific practice. Even more difficult has been the establishment of sound principles of mental health. General public health measures can be applied to whole communities. Legislation may be enacted to insure a safe water supply and thereby eliminate many diseases. Living conditions may be improved. There are still, however, many people who dislike being told that they have to drink chlorinated water or that they may use only pasteurized milk, or that they must make provision against the day when they may need hospital care. In spite of these difficulties, by a process of public education it is still possible to deal with people in masses in matters of public health. Psychiatry and mental health, on the other hand, are largely matters of personal tutoring and individual education. In the not too distant past the psychiatric institution was separate and apart from the community. The psychiatrist was little more than the keeper of the keys and seldom emerged from his walled abode. Today we are trying to operate mental hospitals that are worthy of the name. We are now trying to move closer into the community and give service at the community level so that it will not be necessary to remove our patients from their community environment to an isolated mental hospital situation.

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Child Guidance Clinics

In the matter of prevention, it is therefore only natural that we should turn our attention to children and their parents. From the school system we are able to contact children in large groups. In 1934 we were able to set up our first Child Guidance Clinic unit. This unit consisted of a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a nurse, a psychiatric social worker and a stenographer. This basic pattern is still followed in the staffing of the clinics. The purpose of the Child Guidance Clinic is to help normal children who are presenting problems in behaviour, social adjustment, or education. Children may be referred to the clinic from the school or any social agency, the physician or the parents. There are at the present time four clinic units functioning in B.C., as follows:

One Stationary Clinic, Vancouver One Stationary Clinic, Vancouver - working with the Juvenile Court, Boys’ and Girls’ Industrial Schools and the Borstal School. One Traveling Unit, Vancouver One Stationary Unit, Victoria. In addition, the Metropolitan Health Board in Vancouver operates a Division of Mental Health with a similar type of unit functioning in the school. A second such unit is now being formed under the auspices of the City Health Services at Victoria.

To further radiate into the school system a pilot group of teachers is being trained to act as mental health coordinators. Already two such teachers have completed the one year of training at the University of Toronto, one being stationed in the Victoria schools and one in the Vancouver schools. At the present time two more teachers are undergoing a similar course of training.

The last link in the chain stretching from the mental hospital to the community is now being forged in the formation of the Canadian Mental Health Association with headquarters at Toronto. This mental health association is being developed under the guidance of Dr. Clarence M. Hincks, an outstanding Canadian psychiatrist who has devoted a lifetime to promoting improved standards in mental health care. It is planned to set up Provincial headquarters in each province and to have similar units formed in each community. In the future you will be hearing more of the plans of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

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Riverview,(Essondale) Hospital past, present & future

Riverview Hospital blogs

Sunday, January 19, 2014

The Essondale fleet

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Dr.Gee, middle of picture

BC Penitentiary cemetery at Woodlands

Dr.Gee,Medical Superintendent's report (ca.early 1950's)

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1918 to 1948 directory listings for Essondale

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