Another Doors Open North Bay site (Saturday May 12, 2007).
The Northeast Mental Health Centre or North Bay Psychiatric Hospital as most people know it is located at 4700 Hwy 11 North.
It is a very large complex that was built in 1956 and opened in 1957. The picture shows the administration building. All the buildings on the campus are connected by a series of hallways/tunnels. When the facility was built it was quite modern in its approaches. There are no bars on any of the patients windows but rather very sturdy screens (similar in look to normal windows screens on your average home but obviously they are reinforced). The buildings will become obsolete once the new North Bay Regional Hospital is built.
At one time there were over 1100 patients at this facility in the 1960s. Today there is a little over 200 patients (on a long-term basis). When the new Regional Hospital is built there will only be 113 beds available. Where do the other patients go? Supposedly they will be transferred to Sudbury and Thunder Bay.
It's good that the patients are being rehabilitated into society (which should be the ultimate goal of any treatment facility) but there are some in the community who are questioning the speed at which certain patients are being transferred to either group homes or on their own into the community. Some patients are being put into situations where they are not ready for independent living and would be served better in a monitored situation. But with everything, sometimes medical decisions are not made solely upon medical reasons but rather financial. A balancing act that is not inherently wrong but should be acknowledged by the community. (i.e. if we are concerned that some patients should receive more treatment then we need to realize that it comes at a financial cost).
1 comment:
very cool any idea if people can get in there still
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