From retreat to health centre: legislation, commercial opportunity and the repositioning of a Victorian private asylum.
This paper examines the interplay of commercial imperatives and health care legislation in the survival of a privately owned psychiatric hospital in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Using documentary and archival evidence, we show how the Homewood Retreat (later Sanitarium, and eventually Health Centre) was able to respond to and anticipate legislative developments through the agency of successive medical superintendents and the structural positioning of the institution as an inextricably integrated element in local and provincial mental health provision. Our case study is used to draw out wider lessons concerning agency, legislative context and treatment modality in the determination of organizational histories. We conclude by noting the important role of the private sector in ensuring the continued provision of an asylum form of mental health care.
Joseph
Alun E
AE
Department of Geography, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. ajoseph@uoguelph.ca
Moon
Graham
G
D005161:Facility Regulation and Control; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006754:Hospital Restructuring / Q000266:history; D016304:Hospitals, Private / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends; D009864:Ontario; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D013808:Therapeutic Community