Alberta becomes a Canadian leader in replacing institutional care with community-based services for people with disabilities

1960s through 1970s. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the process of deinstitutionalization of psychiatric services grew in popularity in Canada. This created a movement away from formal institutionalization of people living with disabilities and toward community-centred care. During this time period, Alberta was one of the provinces leading the deinstitutionalization process, and more community-based services began to grow for people with disabilities.

Political pressure from the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties onto the Social Credit Party in Alberta grew stronger through the 1960s, and the opposition parties supported change in care for people living with disabilities in the province. Additionally, in 1969, the important Blair Report was released. It revealed serious problems in the provinces mental health services. Specifically, the Blair Report suggested a strong shift away from large-scale institutional care, as became popular during the earlier eugenics movement. Combined with political pressure and with Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative defeat of the Social Credit party in 1971, Alberta became a leader in the deinstitutionalization movement.

Between 1960 and 1980, all provinces instituted elements of deinstitutionalization. Alberta moved from having the highest psychiatric hospital beds per capita with 4.1 per 1000 in 1965; however by 1980, had closed the greatest number of beds in Canada and reduced to a rate of 0.7 beds per 1000 population.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Alberta Association of Community Living. (2013, March 11). Almost 100 Years of Institutionalization in Alberta of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Draws to a Close. Retrieved from www.aacl.org.

  • Boschma, G. (2011). Deinstitutionalization Reconsidered: Geographic and Demographic Changes in Mental Health Care in British Columbia and Alberta, 1950-1980. Histoire Sociale/Social History, 44(88).

  • Sealy, P. & Whitehead, P. (2004). Forty Years of Deinstitutionalization of Psychiatric Services in Canada: An Empirical Assessment. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49(4).

Alberta becomes a Canadian leader in replacing institutional care with community-based services for people with disabilities

1960s through 1970s. Through the 1960s and 1970s, the process of deinstitutionalization of psychiatric services grew in popularity in Canada. This created a movement away from formal institutionalization of people living with disabilities and toward community-centred care. During this time period, Alberta was one of the provinces leading the deinstitutionalization process, and more community-based services began to grow for people with disabilities.

Political pressure from the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties onto the Social Credit Party in Alberta grew stronger through the 1960s, and the opposition parties supported change in care for people living with disabilities in the province. Additionally, in 1969, the important Blair Report was released. It revealed serious problems in the provinces mental health services. Specifically, the Blair Report suggested a strong shift away from large-scale institutional care, as became popular during the earlier eugenics movement. Combined with political pressure and with Peter Lougheed’s Progressive Conservative defeat of the Social Credit party in 1971, Alberta became a leader in the deinstitutionalization movement.

Between 1960 and 1980, all provinces instituted elements of deinstitutionalization. Alberta moved from having the highest psychiatric hospital beds per capita with 4.1 per 1000 in 1965; however by 1980, had closed the greatest number of beds in Canada and reduced to a rate of 0.7 beds per 1000 population.

-Sheila Gibbons

  • Alberta Association of Community Living. (2013, March 11). Almost 100 Years of Institutionalization in Alberta of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Draws to a Close. Retrieved from www.aacl.org.

  • Boschma, G. (2011). Deinstitutionalization Reconsidered: Geographic and Demographic Changes in Mental Health Care in British Columbia and Alberta, 1950-1980. Histoire Sociale/Social History, 44(88).

  • Sealy, P. & Whitehead, P. (2004). Forty Years of Deinstitutionalization of Psychiatric Services in Canada: An Empirical Assessment. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 49(4).