Feb
7
Unquiet Ghosts
Feb 2013
By Doreen Marion Gee
The history of our treatment of the mentally ill is a sordid account of man's 'inhumanity to man.' In times past, the afflicted were chained, tortured and were housed in conditions that were not fit for human or beast. Over the centuries, more humane treatments and conditions for patients slowly evolved. But the stains of the past remain, even in genteel James Bay. In early Victoria, people with mental illnesses were tossed like lepers and outcasts into horrible living conditions just to get them out of the way. The first "lunatic asylum" in B.C. was located in Victoria Harbour.
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Image C-08843 courtesy of Royal BC Museum, BC Archives |
The following is the history of our dubious distinction of housing the first asylum in the province. The source material is from "British Columbia Mental Health Services, Historical Perspective to 1961" by Richard G. Foulkes, BA, MD - all in a Riverview Hospital website,
During the colonial period of the history of British Columbia, the only facility available for the mentally ill was the common gaol (jail). John Robson, then editor of the British Columbian, later Provincial Secretary and Premier of the Province, described their custody in the New Westminster Gaol on July 23rd, 1863, "The cells in which they (the lunatics) are confined are not at all adapted for such a purpose, entirely too small, ill ventilated, unheated and an offensive effluvia arising from beneath them, the result of no proper system of drainage". In older colony of Vancouver Island, conditions were no less foul in the Victoria "lock-up", where Dr. J. S. Helmcken, B.C.'s first physician, saw the colony's earliest mental patients as far back as the early 1850's. ... When female patients began to present themselves, the gaol became even more unsuitable so, that after an abortive attempt to house "lunatics" of this sex in a private home on Pandora Avenue in Victoria, the first asylum was established. This was a "modest building" constructed of wood, 50 by 40 feet, that contained a number of "cells" or small single rooms. It was formerly the Royal Hospital, a pest house, and was located on the Songhees Indian Reserve in Victoria Harbour adjacent to the Marine Hospital. It accepted its first patient, a young woman referred by Dr. Helmcken, on the 12th of October, 1872, just 14 months after B.C.'s entry into confederation. At the end of this first day of operation, the asylum was occupied by seven patients, all transferred from the "lock-up".
There was no treatment; severely ill people were segregated from society and incarcerated like common criminals. In 1858 and 1859, the Cariboo Gold Rush claimed many victims who suffered mental breakdowns due to the hardships along the way to riches. They were dumped in the Victoria gaol. In later years, a ramshackle filthy cottage used to quarantine those with smallpox, housed those unlucky enough to be sick.
The ghosts of Victoria Hospital are still not resting easy. Discrimination and stigma against the mentally ill are still very much alive in 2013. Those unquiet spirits are watching us ... and hoping for a miracle.