I will remember the experience until the day I die. In the early1980’s, I was a young parent of a daughter diagnosed with a disability. I had recently become Executive Director of the BC Association for the Mentally Retarded (now BCACL) and I had been invited to tour Tranquille Institution in Kamloops one autumn day.
I witnessed a typical morning on one of the wards – one in sharp contrast to the one my daughter was enjoying. Several of the adult residents were lined up, slumped in wheel chairs or lying on gurneys, waiting in the hallway for a morning bathing ritual. They were barely dressed, wearing hospital type gowns – the ones with ties at the back that remove every morsel of your dignity. The bathing area consisted of deep metallic sinks similar to those you will encounter in restaurant kitchens. Each person was lifted onto the cold metal and hosed down. Forgive the expression but the whole process reminded me of a car wash – efficient, assembly like, impersonal.
After being toweled down they were placed back on the metal gurney, still wrapped in their damp towel, exposed to the cold and waiting for the rest of the residents. Once everyone was ready they were wheeled down the long corridor to be dressed for their ‘day program’.
This daily activity consisted of being left lying on gym mats on the floor with a television mounted high on the wall, its picture flickering. I was told this was a typical day – no touch, no stimulation, no companionship.
I left there committed to do my part to close that place and others like it in British Columbia. Fortunately strong leadership was already in place and the community living movement rose to the occasion. Tranquille closed its doors in 1985. And Woodlands and Glendale in the 90’s.
I was reminded of that desolate day when Jack Peeler a friend from Cincinnati sent me a web link to a NPR slideshow and radio interview with Stephen Taylor about his latest book Acts of Conscience.
Have a look at the 9 slides, entitled A Mental Ward Exposed. Although they are over 60 years old they remind me of that disturbing experience 25 years ago.
And it provoked a number of questions.
Do the parents, staff, government decision makers of today realize how far we have come in such a relatively short period of time? It is hard to understand the dangers and ravages of institutional care when it is removed from your experience.
How do we honour the men, women and children who spent all or most of their lives in institutional care? History suggests if we don’t remember the past we are bound to repeat it.
What do we need to do to prevent this from ever happening again?
Recently the Government of BC negotiated a class action settlement for over 1100 former residents of Woodlands institution. My former MLA, Gordon Hogg, a politician to be admired for living his ethics, consented to this process a number of years ago when he was the Minister responsible. Request for approval of the settlement will be heard in Court on January 27th, 2010. Unfortunately residents who lived there prior to 1974 are excluded from the settlement. This is wrong.
Our BC Government should be acknowledged for living up to their legal responsibility to provide compensation to 1100 former residents. They should now do the right thing and live up to their moral responsibility and include the more than 500 residents who lived at Woodlands prior to 1974.
It won’t compensate individuals for what they endured and suffered. But it will ease their later years. More important it will let them know they are not forgotten and their lives had meaning.
And wouldn’t we all be proud of our Government if this was accomplished in time for the Paralympic Games?
For more information on institutions in British Columbia see:
1) BCACL’s website. Note in particular the exhibit From the Inside/OUT
and the Woodlands Cemetery Project
2) BC Coalition of People with Disabilities. - Woodlands Update
3) For a history of the closure of Tranquille read the book Return to the Community by John Lord.
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I will remember the experience until the day I die. In the early1980’s, I was a young parent of a daughter diagnosed with a disability. I had recently become Executive Director of the BC Association for the Mentally Retarded (now BCACL) and I had been invited to tour Tranquille Institution in Kamloops one autumn day.
BCACL and the Canadian Association for Community Living Call on BC Government to Include Pre-1974 Woodlands Residents in Settlement