Goderich Psychiatric Hospital (Ont.)

• Goderich Psychiatric Hospital

• Ontario Hospital, Goderich

The Goderich Psychiatric Hospital opened for service in November 1962 to serve Huron County and the surrounding area. The hospital complex contained seven patient wings (including Child Care wing; adult patient areas; occupational therapy rooms, education program area and library) and administration wing. The Grand Jury Inspection Report of 1975 stated "We were impressed by the rehabilitation program, occupational therapy and recreational facilities.

On 1 April, 1974 the Ministry of Health transferred responsibility for the developmentally disabled to the Ministry of Community and Social Services. Goderich Psychiatric Hospital was closed in 1976 and converted the facility into the Bluewater Centre.

In general terms across the province there was much less need for psychiatric beds due to drug therapy programs and modern psychiatric treatments, which stabilized patients sufficiently well that they could be returned to function in the community. Fewer psychiatric beds or facilities were needed, at a time when there were pressures to reduce the Health budget. After a survey of the psychiatric services in Ontario, it was decided that Goderich was one of two facilities closed. Psychiatric services would continue to be supplied to Goderich and area by means of a twenty bed unit operated by Alexandra Marine Hospital, a similar unit in the Stratford General Hospital, and London psychiatric hospital. Outpatient and day-care was provided in local communities based on the public health unit in Huron County.

Psychiatric facilities in Ontario, including the Goderich Psychiatric Hospital, provided a range of services including acute, rehabilitiation and long-term care for patients with psychiatric disabilities.

In 1974, the stated goals for Goderich Psychiatric Hospital were as follows: To provide mental health services on a decentralized basis to the populations of Huron, Perth, and southern part of Bruce Counties, and to provide specialized programs of Child Care and Alcoholic and Addiction to Southwestern Ontario, placing emphasis on increased community services and simultaneously reducing in-patient population; To provide hospital beds as a back-up service rather than a substitute for comprehensive community mental health programs; To ensure that hospital beds are used primarily for short-term investigation and treatment; To increase the emphasis on assistance to individuals in their own community by improved consultation to and co-ordination of community mental health services; To undertake a research program considering the numbers of admissions to hospital and, in particular, the increasing rate of re-admission to in-patient status.

No statute could be identified establishing this institution.

RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Annual reports of the Department of Health, Mental Health Division (1962-1971)

Annual reports of the Ministry of Health, 1972-1976)

RG 10-67 (Provincial psychiatric hospitals administration files)

Not found in Canadiana.

Archivist(s):
Solovitch, A. Simonds, M. McIntyre