Relocating mental health care in British Columbia

While we, the authors of this study, understand that the greatest impact of this change has been on the lives of former residents, this report aims to capture the bigger picture of this dramatic shift in the organization and delivery of mental health care. [...] The first process has led to changes in the philosophy of care and in the involvement in care of families and mental health service recipients. [...] This report details the results of a three-year study conducted to better understand the complex dimensions of these processes, with particular attention to the different experiences of men and women who lived through them, and to the extent to which regionalization was seen as an opportunity to make mental health care more responsive to both the medical and social needs of people. [...] Jointly undertaken by researchers at Simon Fraser University and the BC Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health (BCCEWH), with the support and input of colleagues at Riverview Hospital and the Université de Montréal, the study began by examining the transfer process because this was the first impact of reform in Interior Health. [...] The challenges related to the imposition of a new model of care after the patients arrived and to delivery of services in a system that, we discovered, paid little attention to the gendered aspects of mental health.