Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Canadians have long been concerned about the administration of mental health services due to the negative implications of inadequate treatment on society, families and the quality of life for patients themselves. Since the 1980s there have been significant efforts in all Canadian provinces to reform mental health services, known as the period of deinstitutionalization, which included reform measures to encourage treatment in the community and the building of life skills and social supports for patients. In recent years, however, there have been indications that a process of reinstitutionalization has started in selected provinces as a result of the need for government's to manage the negative externalities associated with deinstitutionalization, including rising rates of homelessness and growth in the number of persons with mental illness in the criminal justice system. This project will work to assess the factors that led to reinstitutionalization in British Columbia and it's implications on service providers, the organization of mental health care, and patients themselves. This research will determine whether reinstitutionalization is in fact improving access to services or reverting to the traditional institutionalized model of mental health service delivery that was dismissed in the 1980s as being insufficient. This project will stimulate a policy debate about the state of mental health services following deinstitutionalization, and determine whether reinstitutionalization is the appropriate model for organizing mental health services in British Columbia. The project will work to educate the research community, policy makers and the public about the past, present and future administration of mental health services, and provide the foundation for future research on reinstitutionalization in other Canadian provinces.