In 1876, Royal Hospital in
Victoria was converted to British Columbia's first facility to house mentally ill patients. Due to crowding, Royal Hospital was closed and the patients moved to the new Provincial Asylum for the Insane in 1878. Again facing problems of overcrowding at the turn of the century, in 1904, the provincial government purchased in then-rural Coquitlam for the construction of Riverview Hospital and the adjacent Colony Farm lands. Construction of a temporary "Hospital for the Mind" began at the Riverview property in 1909. In 1911, British Columbia's first Provincial Botanist, John Davidson, established an
arboretum, a
nursery, and a
botanical garden on the hospital lands, often with the assistance of patients, as there existed a belief in the therapeutic value of this kind of work. The botanical garden was moved to the new
University of British Columbia in 1916, but the arboretum and nursery remained. In 1913, a permanent provincial mental hospital, administered by Henry Esson Young, was opened, treating about 300 seriously mentally ill male patients. The building was originally constructed to hold 480 patients, but by the end of the year, it housed 919. By this time, Colony Farm was producing over 700 tons of crops and 20,000 gallons of milk in a year, using mostly patient labour. In 1950, the Male Chronic building was renamed West Lawn, the Female Chronic building East Lawn, and the Acute Psychopathic Unit became Centre Lawn. The hospital itself was then called the Provincial Mental Hospital, Essondale. In 1983, the West Lawn building was closed. In 1984, 141 acres of Riverview's upper hillside were sold, subdivided, and developed as the Riverview Heights subdivision, with 250 single-family homes, and the remaining Riverview forest was acquired by the city of Coquitlam. In 1924, the Acute Psychopathic Unit, later called Centre Lawn, opened. Several hospital staff lived at the remote site, and by 1927, this had grown into a small community called Essondale, which included shops, a school, and a fire hall. In 1930, the 675-bed Female Chronic Unit (later called East Lawn) opened due to overcrowding. A steady decline in beds and facilities started in the 1960s and continued up to 2004, at which point there were only 800 beds. Some say that the reason for this decrease was initially due to the introduction of anti-psychotic medications and the development of psychiatric units in acute-care hospitals as well as a move toward outpatient care. As early as 1967, a decision had been made to downsize Riverview Hospital. The determination was first brought up officially on paper three years after the publication of the Mental Health Act of 1964, which intended to have mental health care be as readily available to the population as that of physical health. The two acts worked in conjunction so that by 1970, there were seventeen mental health centres in British Columbia, twelve of which had opened within the previous four years. In 1988, management of the hospital was officially transferred from the directors to a board of provincially appointed trustees. The shift had been happening from the early 1960s and has been argued to be one of the reasons for the 1969 committee's decision to downsize Riverview and decrease funding. The board, as far less experienced in psychiatry than the original managers, who held doctorates and who were trained psychiatrists, were again replaced in 1992 by another board without trustees that was said to give a broader representation of concerns, including those of consumers patients, businesses, and union and community agencies. By 1990, the decision had officially been made to reduce Riverview to a 358-bed facility, with the presumed intention of opening regional-care facilities throughout the province as stated in the Mental Health Initiative. In 1992, the report
Listening: A Review of Riverview Hospital was published as an attempt to resolve the complaints of patients and their family members that had gone ignored for years. The document "emphasizes that a full assessment of patients' decision-making abilities and personal support network is necessary, and that a patient be notified and given an opportunity to object before an incapability certificate is completed." The new rights of patients were implemented less than a decade before the hospital was entirely shut down. Also in 1992, the Crease Clinic closed. Also in 1992, the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society was formed to preserve the remnants of the botanical garden and to advocate for John Davidson's vision of psychological therapy through horticulture. By the year 2002, there were 800 beds in all of Riverview. In 2004, it was stated that by 2007, 400 new beds would open in other areas of British Columbia for mental health services, but places and dates went unmentioned. Neither did the report state how many beds would be removed from Riverview. Other buildings on Riverview Hospital grounds continued as mental health facilities. In 2005, the city's task force on the hospital lands rejected the idea of further housing on the lands and declared that the lands and buildings should be protected and remain as a mental health facility. In 2009, Riverview Hospital was added to the
Canadian Register of Historic Places. Other mental health facilities have been constructed on the Riverview grounds, the first being Connolly Lodge, which opened on March 1, 2002; Cottonwood Lodge opened a few years later, and Cypress Lodge on April 23, 2010. Together, these three lodges have beds for 64 patients. In addition, twelve cottages are still in use as transitional housing for patients from the Forensic Hospital, and the Brookside and Hillside buildings host a 35-bed residential rehabilitation and recovery program run by Coast Mental Health for patients with concurrent disorders. The construction of a provincially funded $101-million mental health and addiction treatment facility on the Riverview grounds, named Red Fish Healing Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, began in 2017 and was planned to be completed in 2021. The facility, which opened on October 12, 2021, is intended to provide inpatient care for 105 patients. The focus of its programs were developed to deliver specialized care for adults with severe and complex mental health and addiction challenges. It is believed to be the first large, standalone centre dedicated to treating the concurrent disorders of mental health and addictions. ==Units before closure==