Dr. Crease

Dr. Arthur Crease began working as a pathologist and physician at the Provincial Mental Hospital in New Westminster in 1914. By 1926, he was appointed Medical Superintendent then General Superintendent and Provincial Psychiatrist in 1934. He had a warm relationship with his colleagues and was respected by many. He made many contributions to mental health care at Essondale and throughout the province.

Crease was particularly concerned that long- term patients and the newly admitted were housed in the same ward. His vision was to have a facility for the assessment, intensive treatment and rehabilitation of acutely ill mental patients. Thus, the Crease Clinic of Psychological Medicine was built.

 "The opening of the Crease Clinic was a real step forward. The physical facility was much better; people weren't lost in it like the bigger areas. Patients received more individual care; they had their own doctor, their own social worker. They got assessments from the Psychology Department. That was hard to do in those huge wards."

Alice McSweeney
Staff psychologist intermittently from 1948-1974.

Crease Clinic was a clinic for those suffering from the early symptoms of mental illness. It housed 325 patients and was a treatment and teaching centre. The focus was on rehabilitation and recovery within a few months rather than long-term hospitalization.

The clinic had a surgical suite, X-Ray department, laboratory, medical departments - cardiology, neurology, and ear/nose/throat - physiotherapy, recreational therapy, library and classrooms. The Crease Clinic was a state-of-the-art facility, which gathered worldwide attention when it opened.

The Crease Clinic operated under a different act than the Mental Hospitals Act. Patients could admit themselves voluntarily and also leave treatment. The usual program was four months though in some cases it could be extended to six. This approach encouraged people to seek help before their mental illnesses advanced.

"It should do much to place mental illness on the same plane as physical illness and help to remove any stigma, which uniformed people may have regarding sickness of the mind," said the 1951 Medical Superintendent's report.

Dr. Crease wasn't all business though. Apparently, every winter, the doctor would bring staff and patients up the hill from Essondale grounds to a lake. There, he would tie a rope around his waist and have everyone hold on tight to it. Crease would then venture out onto the frozen surface to see if it was safe enough to skate on. There are no stories of him falling through the ice.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, A Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Tragedy at Colony Farm

Colony Farm at Essondale was a thriving business into the 1940s. Farm work was seen a therapeutic and the patients would work in the fields and care for the animals. There were several teams of Clydesdale horses housed in a large arena with teamsters and dairy men. Married men lived in houses with their families and single men lived in bunks in various buildings. Everyone would gather in the huge dining room for their meals.

Those Clydesdale horses were a source of pride for all at Essondale. Maybe not everyone though. In December of 1946, a milker set a series of fires at Essondale, one of which burned the Clydesdale arena.

Essondale had its own fire department - nine full time employees and 20 volunteers - but they were no match for the determined arsonist setting the fires.

"The blaze that utterly destroyed the arena was the most tragic of all. Prideful teamsters and grooms wept as the foot-thick wooden beams burned, then collapsed. One employee and several young Clydesdale horses were lost. The Clydesdale operation was never the same again."

From Coquitlam - 100 Years.

Bob Gardner was the farm's foreman at the time. His daughter, Jenny, grew up at Essodale remembers that terrifying time.

"It was a traumatic experience. If you lived that close to fire, you never forget it. My hair turned white within a year and my dad's too. The arena was the first big fire...It was a massive, gorgeous building with huge oil paintings of the prize-winning Clydesdales and Holsteins, all the shiny harnesses, trophies and records.

As we opened our door we could see the tall tower of the arena collapsing, that's how intense the fire was. They got all the teams out by pulling them through the bull pens with wet sacks over their heads and then into the open fields. But they couldn't get to the young stock. It all happened so fast; men wearing glasses didn't even have time to put them on. One man was trapped upstairs. All the records and harnesses, everything was lost."

From Coquitlam - 100 Years.

According to a December 10, 1946 newspaper article, one man and five horses died in the fire, which left $200,000 worth of damage. Ian Ferguson was a 62-year-old teamster who ran into the fire to retrieve a suitcase full of money.

Twenty-four men were sleeping on the top floor of the two-storey building when the fire started. A farm employee, Bob Wall, was playing his radio in bed when he smelled smoke. He then saw the fire burning in the hay so he quickly woke the others and all escaped.

The farm superintendent, Peter Moore, said that if the wind had been blowing east, the fire would have spread to a nearby building housing 250 head of prize cattle.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, A Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill

Oh! How Shocking!

Construction of the Female Chronic Building. June 28, 1929. Dominion Photo Co. Courtesy of the City of Vancouver Archives

Construction of the powerhouse at Essondale. March 6, 1925

The Nurse's Home at Essondale. Stride Studios, New Westminster. Apr. 23, 1929

Colony Farm, Essondale. 1914 taken by W.J. Moore Photo

Until the 1930s, there wasn't many ways to treat those with mental illness. A sanctuary - an asylum - provided a safe, quiet environment away from the stresses of society. Work therapy was another method of treatment commonly used at Essondale and other mental institutions. But the thirties brought new methods to treat the patients - drugs, electro convulsive (shock) treatments and surgery.

Insulin shock treatment and metrazol convulsive therapy were introduced at Essondale and primarily used to treat those with schizophrenia. High doses of insulin were injected into a patient causing convulsions - insulin shock therapy. For the metrazol convulsive therapy, injections of a chemical that caused convulsions was injected into the schizophrenic. These treatments were in use for about ten years until electro convulsive therapy replaced them. Insulin coma therapy remained in use for many years later.

At the end of the 1930s, Canada was involved with World War II. Many of Essondale's staff joined the armed forces and the hospital received a wave of war-shocked veterans. Once again, Essondale was overcrowded as the population rose to 4,100. However, due to the war and the depression, there was no building on the grounds.

Keeping trained nurses was difficult as they followed their patriotic duty and joined the war effort. So there was many untrained nurses. In 1942, there were three students to one graduate nurse - more than 100 nurses quit that year. At one point, more than half the staff lacked experience and training in hospital work and psychiatric care.

In an attempt to correct this, Essondale hired aides to help. The educational requirement for an aide was Grade 9. The nursing shortage was somewhat relieved when Essondale allowed the hiring of married women. Essondale, like many employers of the time, thought that women should leave the workforce and become homemakers after marriage. The war time shortage changed that attitude.

The nursing shortage also had an impact on the Training School. At times, there were around 100 student nurses working the wards but they had to wait a year or more for formal instruction.

Since the late 19th century, men had played an important role in caring for the mentally ill. They were known as the 'keepers'. The students at Essondale's Training School were mainly female. Nine male students attended the school between 1937 to 1942.

In 1945, special courses were introduced for male Charge Attendants, which lead to a certificate of Psychiatric Nursing. Student education in a wide number of disciplines remained an important part of the hospital's operations.

Thanks to the PDF, Riverview, A Legacy of Care and Compassion for the above information.

I hope you find the beauty around you.

Karen Magill