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Featured Article Of The Week

Saskatchewan Hospital


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Prior to 1905, Saskatchewan patients requiring mental hospital care were sent to Manitoba. In 1907, however, a young provincial health officer, Dr. David Low (1869–1941), was sent by Premier Walter Scott to visit mental hospitals in eastern Canada and the United States in order to prepare recommendations for such care in the province. Low favoured the cottage system, but Dr. C.K. Clarke, a well-known Toronto psychiatrist, demurred; he felt its use would be questionable “for both economic and climatic reasons,” though he admitted that the cottage system “gives ideal conditions for the patients themselves.” Low’s plan, which included removing “all evidence of restraint in the management of the insane,” was abandoned: the Saskatchewan Hospital North Battleford, a large pavilion-style mental institution, was built between 1911 and 1913.

Storey and Van Egmond adapted the many ideas, and along with various other improvements, made the original 700-foot long building better suited for the climate of Saskatchewan. In the end, these improvements, according to a report from the Regina Leader, “have been welded into a uniform whole which will best serve the uses and interests of the people of this Saskatchewan.” The author continued, “in the arrangement of the building and in materials of construction the most modern ideas in asylum building are being used, and the institution will be one of which any province might well be proud.” A reporter from The North Battleford News agreed. In 1913, the paper reported, “The new provincial asylum will soon be completed. It will be one of the most up-to-date institutions for humanity’s afflicted in the Dominion.”

The government did not spare any expense with the institution. They had initially set aside $450,000 to build just the main building, which came to over seven hundred feet in length and divided into three portions. In the end the complete cost for the institution, including plumbing, equipment, power house, laundry, and the other necessary support buildings was roughly $1,000,000. Still, the investment did not stop there. Click here for more...