L’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec – Specialization
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Specialization of services provided developed along with the move towards deinstitutionalization. From the early 1920s, the Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange obtained its own physiotherapy service, which provided diathermy and ultra-violet treatments. It was immediately very popular and its use increased over the years. In 1956, 1,035 patients used the physiotherapy service, which had also improved its methods; in addition to diathermy and ultra-violet treatments, they added treatments such as ultrasound, wax baths, and massage.1 Physiotherapy marked the start of a great shift towards specialization, which was also to increase in the 1960s. A number of medical specialties started at Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange.In 1944, the social sciences school at Laval founded its first psychiatric social service. This was used in tandem with the Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange, which founded its psychiatric social service clinic in 1947. Specialists from this university attended patients when they first entered the hospital, during their hospitalization, and at their discharge. The psychology service was founded in 1953, when a psychologist was hired to join the team of specialists.In 1966 we saw a turning point in specialization at the Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange. An inhalation therapy service was developed and along with patient care provided in this area, hospital staff was trained in cardio-respiratory resuscitation.2 In that same year, Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange expressed a wish to create gerontology services, and services for children and adolescents, alcoholics, and so forth. They also said they wanted to develop areas related to psychiatry, such as psychology, social work and occupational therapy, as well as hire instructors, educators and patient attendants.3 All these services were to be created in the years that followed.In about 1973-74, Hôpital Saint-Michel-Archange created an intake centre in its establishment. It was intended for patients who did not need ongoing psychiatric, medical or nursing care, but who did need to use the educational, learning, recreational and motivational services in order to return to society. It was closed in the 1980s to become a long-term care hospital (CHLSD).Today, the movement to super-specialization has led l’Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec to include a full range of specialized professional services, such as those for “functional” rehabilitation (occupational therapy and physiotherapy), pharmacy, psychology, sex therapy, social services, specialized education, gerontopsychiatry, neurology, and so forth.
- Jules Lambert. Mille fenêtres, op.cit., p. 77.
- Ibid., p. 144.
- Jules Lambert. L’Hôpital psychiatrique, Centre actif de traitement et de réhabilitation. Commission Bonneau – Dr, Jules Lambert, 1966, p. 11.
