By Mimi Israël, Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Douglas Hospital

I have often wondered what it would have been like to be the psychiatrist-in-chief of the Douglas Hospital in earlier times. As we currently struggle with ministerial directives to totally transform the mental health care delivery system in Quebec, and as the Douglas faces the challenges of completing its transformation from asylum to institute, I conjure up the simplicity of bygone times and question whether I have been saddled with leading the Douglas through its most difficult period. Having been trained in an evidence-based era, I felt the need to validate my hunch with a look at Douglas history from a psychiatrist-in-chief’s perspective.

If I had been psychiatrist-in-chief from 1890 to 1923…
If I had been psychiatrist-in-chief from 1923 to 1947…
If I had been psychiatrist-in-chief from 1947 to 1965…
If I had been psychiatrist-in-chief from 1965 to 1994…
If I had been psychiatrist-in-chief from 1995 to 2001…