. LOWER MAINLAND Union, municipalities fear gov’t closure of mental hospital The provincial government’s plan to de- institutionalize mentally ill patients and close the Riverview psychiatric hospital in the cause of privatization has local munici- pal governments bracing for an overload of mental patients on their communities. Councils currently face a draft plan for the replacement of the 1,300-bed Riverview by local, smaller scale services, but munici- pal health department officials warn that Lower Mainland services can not handle the anticipated load. And the B.C. Government Employees Union, which represents staff at the Coquitlam-based institution, has slammed the plan, released Sept. 30 and entitled, The Mental Health Consultation Report: A Draft Plan to Replace Riverview Hospital. “The government’s plan to ‘de-institu- tionalize’ the care of the mentally ill is a thinly veiled disguise to get rid of its respon- sibilities . . . as part of its overall plans to sell off all public services,” union president John Shields charged. “It is an ad hoc, piecemeal approach in which individual responses are received behind closed government doors. The government is proposing the selling off of the care of the mentally ill without any real — public discussion,” he said Wednes- y. The effects of the five-year plan to “downsize” — close — Riverview received an airing from Vancouver health depart- ment head Dr. John Blatherwick, who told a city council committee last week that Vancouver can expect to receive the lion’s share of the institution’s patients. Blatherwick warned the council commit- tee on community services Nov. 26 that the city faces a “serious crisis” over facilities inadequate to meet the increased load. He predicted some 300 to 600 patients will head to the city, which has the most mental health facilities in the Lower Main- land, and said “millions of dollars” are needed. But a spokesman for the provincial health ministry has offered no guarantee that Vancouver will receive funding before Riverview closes. Social planning director Max Beck told the committee in a report that the govern- ment has promised local “mental health co-ordinating committees” in each region, “bridge money” to establish the necessary services and to “make families a part of the- planning for individual client needs.” But the plan did not, Beck reported, state the number of patients a given community can expect, outline the type and size of pro- posed facilities needed, give a timetable for the changes, “account for all patients cur- tently accommodated,” or address current service shortfalls. Riverview has 1,300 patients — some 800-900 adults and 400 geriatric pat- ients — and the ministry’s plan calls for 550 beds for medium and long-care patients to be established around B.C., with 300 in the Lower Mainland. “There is no comment about the remain- ing 750 patients, although there is an acknowledgement that some institutional “‘mini-Riverview’ beds will be needed, as well as additional residential facilities,” Beck’s report stated. The social planning head said commun- ity groups making submissions to the minis- try on the draft plan have expressed common concerns about the inadequacy of facilities to meet even current demands. He cited services such as Community Care teams, acute hospitals, specialty units at city hospitals, vocational training and employ- ment agencies and advocacy services. Emergency services, the report stated, have faced a backlog due to insufficient hospital beds while residential facilities also 2 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 2, 1987 lack adequate numbers of beds and accommodations. Other support services, such as GAIN and counselling for certain groups are also in short supply, Beck’s report advised. The BCGEU in its submission to the mental health report said it agreed that community-based care facilities help mental patients, but only if these are part of a government operated system. “I do not believe that most British Columbians want the care of the mentally ill turned over to for-profit private compan- ies,” Shields said. Blatherwick said he based his comments on the concerns expressed by Greater Van- couver Mental Health Services and the Metropolitan Board of Health. Vancouver, along with Burnaby, Rich- mond and the north shore municipalities is a member of the board. Board chair and Richmond alderman Bob McMath said the members, which include an alderman and a school trustee from each of the participating municipali- ties, have asked the ministry not to proceed with the plan until their concerns are addressed. ‘ McMath said the concerns include: © The inadequacy of current resources, including hospitals and Community Care teams. @ The lack of long-term care facilities in the Lower Mainland to accommodate some 300 patients released from Riverview and the adjacent institution, Valleyview, and the need for extensive training for new staff. © The need to consider the location of long-term care facilities and the fact that - current facilities are too small to handle the kind of programs necessary. © The need to replace outdated facilities in the Lower Mainland. © The report’s failure to acknowledge a role for municipal planning departments in locating new group homes. BCGEU president Shields also noted that most communities lack the facilities to handle Riverview’s patient load and questi- oned how psychiatric units in the region’s 28 general hospitals could cope when those hospitals’ budgets are already bare-bones. He said replacing Riverview with regional facilities is unworkable at any rate since most of the institution’s patients come from the Lower Mainland or Fraser Valley. The union instead calls for the replacement of upgrading of Riverview and community based facilities “where appropriate,” Shields said. The BCGEU’s submission to the gov- ernment report states that union members inthe mental health care field should be involved in any transition to an alternative health care system. Vancouver council’s community services committee has recommended city staff pre- pare a more detailed report on service short- falls and to discover the value of the lands on which Riverview and the nearby former Colony Farm penal institute, already up for sale, are worth. “We want to see the money from the sale of that land, some 200 acres, at least be ploughed back into the health budget and passed on the municipalities involved, instead of just being placed in general revenues,” said Ald. Bruce Eriksen, a com- mittee member. Ald. Eunice Parker of Coquitlam said the district council has already. expressed its concerns about the lack of facilities in the municipality. She said Riverview has already phased out its fire department on government orders, laying off 21 employees and leasing the equipment for $1 to Coquitlam. But the district has only hired some 10 additional firefighters so far, she said. About that drive ... Time waits for no one, they say, and we note that time is running out on the fall 1987-88 subscription drive. We've seen fewer that expected new subscriptions come in on our goal of 300 new readers and 500 renewals by Feb. 1. With a reminder that there are prizes for top subscription achievers and for some new sub- scribers, we urge our friends and supporters to make that extra effort, and help introduce hundreds of new readers to the Pacific Tribune. We need 300 new subs _ City rules ignored inland subdivision The provincial government has uni- laterally subdivided a piece of Expo 86 land, and that sets a dangerous prece- dent, Ald. Libby Davies of the Com- mittee of Progressive Electors told Vancouver city council Nov. 24. She was reacting to the provincial cabinet’s order-in-council separating the former B.C. Pavilion buildings from the rest of the old Expo site, which the province has put on the auction block for multi-million dollar devel- opment. In doing so, the cabinet bypassed the provincial Land Title Act and ignored the city’s own processes for subdivision, despite promises that all development on the site would follow city zoning bylaws and other regulations. “T think it’s bad news to the city that the province has gone ahead and used their own jurisdiction...’ Davies said. Council subsequently voted to tell the B.C. Enterprises Corporation, which controls the former Expo lands, to go through regular city channels prior to enacting any further changes to the status of the site. But since then council has deferred a series of planned “special workshops” on the future of the site until next year, prompting Davies to charge that the right-wing Non-Partisan Association majority is stalling on establishing a city position on post-Expo development. The future of the former Expo lands bordering the north shore of False Creek became a high-profile issue after the provincial government earlier this year scrapped plans for a housing- intensive development on the northern- most section of site. The project, known as North Park, was the result of three years of negotiations between city officials and the B.C. Place Crown cor- poration, and included low-income housing and a school for its residents. Economic Development Minister Grace McCarthy scuttled the project, merged the B.C. Place corporation into the new B.C. Enterprises Corporation and announced that all former Expo lands were up for sale to the highest bidder. Currently Hong Kong-based capital is showing the most interest in the site. The move prompted fears that the city’s and community groups’ desire for low-cost housing would be ignored in the rush for cash. The provincial government, however, had sworn to abide by city zoning and other regula- tions regarding any future develop- ment. But the recent development — whereby BCEC removed the land around the B.C. buildings and placed it in the separate B.C.,Pavilion,corpora;; tion, thus engaging in a: unilateral subdivision — has rekindled those fears. The Crown corporation’s excuse is that the impending sale of the rest of the — Expo site required a speedy subdivi- sion, impossible to achieve under the city’s lengthy processes, council was told. But Davies rejected that argument. She said the corporation is selling the land without knowing what the zoning for the site will be, and has yet to address the question of cleaning up the contamination to the soil caused by years of industrial occupation. And, she said, the land could still be sold to potential buyers with the understand- ing that the parcel did not including the B.C. buildings. “So I think something fishy is going on and what bothers me is that the provincial government has always said ... that they’ll abide’ by the city’s devel- opment processes. How many times have we heard that ... ?”” Davies said. “We know they have the power (to unilaterally impose zoning and subdivi- sions) and that’s what’s worried us,” she said. Council unanimously adopted a motion from Ald. George Puil that the city “requests the provincial govern- ment in future ensure that all subdivi- sions are done pursuant to city regulations.” However, a motion by Davies at last Thursday’s meeting of council’s trans- portation and strategic planning com- mittee that the city request BCEC to release its plans for public discussion failed. (The motion does, however, go to council for consideration anyway.) The committee postponed a series of three meetings on the positions taken on development of the site by the city and the Crown corporations responsi- ble during the past several years.