Advocates propose mixed-use mental-health 'village' on Riverview lands

Herschel Hardin is hatching a plan for Coquitlam's covetedRiverview lands, and he says it's unlike anything ever tried before.

Hardin, a mental health activist, wants to create an "intentional community" on the grounds of the old RiverviewHospital, a kind of planned commune where patients with severe mental illnesses would live side by side with non-patients.

He, along with other members of the Riverview VillageIntentional Community Society, envision a kind of wellness utopia replete with art centres, coffee shopsand they hope market-price rental units for non-patients.

Members of the societymet with Ministry of Housing officials last week to pitch the idea,Hardin said.

The mixed community would benefit all its varied residents, providing "community integration anda real neighbourhood, a real village," he said.

Those with major depressive disorders or prone to psychotic episodes could rent subsidized units with doctors and nurses nearby, the society proposes, while non-patient residents would pay "whatever they can" to contribute to Riverview's upkeep.

The patients would get the support of a tight-knitcommunitywhere they could work and spend time with friends and re-integrate with society.

Non-patients, meanwhile, would form bonds with neighbours they might not otherwise have met, Hardin says.

Current system 'doesn't engage' patients

Hardin's son was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the1970s and had several long stays at RiverviewHospital.

But after he was treated and released into the general population, Hardin noticed a new set of hurdles.

"Psychotic symptoms can be treated fairly quickly," Hardin said. "We're talking about delusions, hallucinations, over-thought disorder, that kind of stuff. That can be taken care of by antipsychotics."

But once patients are discharged from hospital, "there's a whole set of other symptoms for which there isn't medication," Hardin said, suggesting social isolation, lack of motivation and cognitive difficulties all stem from a lack of community supports.

The village model, he suggests, could take care of a lingering gap in the health systemby creating a third option between long-term hospitalization and "scattered site housing," like some facilities that exist in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, by allowing patients to integrate with the community from the outset.

"Discharging them from a hospital and putting them in an apartment somewhere doesn'treally engage them," Hardin said.

Hardin pointsto similar experiments around the world, including one inGeel, Belgium, where a care system dating back to the13thcentury sees patients living with foster families andengaging with society as a whole.

Riverview'sfuture still in the air

A new facility on the Riverviewlands is slated to replace the agingBurnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addiction, which can treat 94 patients. Last year the NDP government promised a $101-million replacement by 2019, with the promise to add 11 extra beds.

A number of stakeholders besides the patients, including environmentalists, conservationistsand mental health nurses, are all petitioning the province as it develops its "master plan" for the 244-acre Riverviewsite.

The ministry confirmed with CBCNews that Housing Minister SelinaRobinsonhas metwith a number of stakeholders and groups concerned about Riverview's future, including a meeting last week with the village society.

'We don't need it,' says nurse

Psychiatric nurseChristinaGowersaysshe's been lobbying for years to have Riverviewexpanded for what she says are pressing needs and last on her list of priorities is market-rate rentals for the healthy.

"We don't need it," Gower said. "What we need is other things:the long-term care homes, the transition homes, the dementia village, the chronic pain research treatment, PTSD research and treatment."

But Hardinsays the village society takes a holistic rather than clinical approach to mental wellness.

"This isn't just another community, another neighbourhood. It exists to welcome, integrate, support and help those with a particular disability," she said,making Riverview a place "where they can blossom."