'I made it': Inside the addiction and mental health treatment ongoing at old Riverview Hospital site
CTV
The Riverview Hospital itself has been closed for more than a decade, but 289 people are currently receiving treatment for mental health, addictions or both at the old site.
The Riverview Hospital itself has been closed for more than a decade, but 289 people are currently receiving treatment for mental health, addictions or both at the old site.
Sumiqwuela, as it’s now called, has two new facilities and several refurbished structures from the old psychiatric hospital operations currently in use. The rest of the structures are administrative buildings used by various government agencies and crumbling historic edifices used only for film shoots.
Coast Mental Health operates two programs at Sumiqwuela and provided CTV News with rare access to their facilities and insight into the supports offered both off- and on-site. BC Housing says there are currently no plans to expand the existing programs as all discussions for the site’s future are on indefinite hold.
A non-profit agency, Coast Mental Health was formed in the 1960s when Riverview Hospital’s philosophy of care changed and patients were no longer expected to spend their lives institutionalized for treatment of severe mental illness, and CMH provided supports in the community.
They deliver a 40-bed in-patient service at Riverview Hospital’s old Hillside and Brookside buildings with a rehabilitation and recovery program for people with both mental illness and substance use issues: medication, group therapy, one-on-one psychiatric care, and cognitive rehabilitation are all provided to patients who live in their own room for up to a year of treatment.
“It’s about having access to both psychiatric and addiction medicine professionals, support staff, nurses,” said CMH CEO, Keir MacDonald. “The goal is still all about psychosocial rehabilitation, providing people the care and structured support they need to move forward to their next steps.”
They also operate transitional housing for patients leaving the Colony Farm forensic hospital, in the form of 24-7 supervision in 11 refurbished hundred-year-old cottages of three to four bedrooms that used to house Riverview physicians and their families.
