Dark history may temper public input on former hospital at Riverview

Coquitlam resident Teresa Balfour has a complicated relationship with Riverview Hospital: She appreciates the beauty of the grounds when she walks through them on her commute, but she also recalls the darker side of the Lower Mainlands former hub of mental-health care.

Riverview was a very scary place, said Ms. Balfour, whose brother Michael died in its East Lawn facility in 1990. You didnt know if youd ever get out.

B.C. Housing, the ministry in charge of the grounds, will hold open houses on Thursday and Saturday to present and discuss plans for the future of the park-like surroundings of the facility, which for a century has been a crucible for the evolving attitudes about mental illness, the people who suffer from it and their treatment.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman said the province has no firm plans or preconceptions of what to do with the land; the open houses are meant to examine a range of options, from turning the historic site into a tech park to ensuring it remains a centre for care.

I think well see people talk about housing. I think well see people talk about a tech park type of thing that would attract jobs to Coquitlam, Mr. Coleman said. I think well hear people talk about other health facilities [as well].

Richard Stewart, mayor of Coquitlam, wants Riverview to remain a focal point for the treatment of mental illness, which he said his city has long embraced.

Were a little unusual in that regard, Mr. Stewart said. We want these facilities in our community.

Riverview opened a century ago, and by the 1950s, had about 5,000 patients from all over the province and almost as many staff.

Horrific treatments methods once considered the norm became the subject of lawsuits and government settlements. In an out-of-court settlement in 2005, the province awarded $450,000 to nine women who were forcibly sterilized there between 1940 and 1968.

The sterilizations were done after the province embraced eugenics, the belief that sterilization of the mentally ill, criminals and the poor was an acceptable measure to improve society.

See more here:
Dark history may temper public input on former hospital at Riverview