Unprovoked Vancouver attacks reignite debate over need for Riverview-like psychiatric hospital

Two shocking, unprovoked attacks that killed one person and maimed another in downtown Vancouver this week have reignited the debate over whether the province needs a major psychiatric hospital.

A medical leader at a major B.C. hospital strongly believes the winding down and closure of Coquitlam’s Riverview Hospital by 2012 left a critical gap in care for British Columbians suffering from severe, long-term mental health conditions.

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“When people are chronically violent, you are not going to be able to manage them in community resources,” said Dr. Barb Kane, head of psychiatry at the University Hospital of Northern British Columbia in Prince George.

“You can throw all the money you want at community resources but, for that really high-end level of severity, you need a psychiatric hospital. You need something big enough with 24/7, trained response teams so that staff can feel safe. You can’t do that in small, 10-bed units.”

Kane says severe mental illness is rarely completely cured, but it gets “better enough” when people take their medications and have support in the community.

“But I won’t say everyone can be treated. Some people never get better and we don’t have anywhere to send them. The only place we can put them here in Prince George is in our hospital,” she told 1130 NewsRadio.

“And they can’t stay there forever so we have to let them out. I know we are letting people out who are potentially dangerous,” Kane said.

According to the Vancouver Police Department, the suspect in Wednesday’s attacks in downtown Vancouver appears to be “a very troubled man who has a lengthy history of mental health-related incidents.”

The 34-year-old White Rock resident has prior convictions for assault and assault causing bodily harm, and at the time of his arrest, he was on probation for an assault that occurred in 2023.

In August, Kane started an online petition to pressure the government to build a psychiatric hospital to serve at least Northern B.C., but she insists the whole province needs such a facility.

Kane acknowledges the old Riverview Hospital wasn’t without its problems.

“But we threw out the baby with the bathwater when we closed it down. I’ve really come to believe that a psychiatric hospital is an essential part of the health-care system. It’s not something you can do without.”

Meanwhile, the Canadian Mental Health Association sees a different solution, pushing the provincial government to fund a more comprehensive spectrum of mental health-care in the province.

“The majority of people living with a mental illness are not violent — there are almost a million people living with a mental health and/or substance use disorder in BC today,” said the CMHA in an email to 1130 NewsRadio.

“While there may be a small number of people with more serious mental health conditions that are at elevated risk of violence, this risk is the result of the failure of the mental health system to support these individuals before they reach a point of crisis,” CMHA continued.

The association has released a policy and advocacy roadmap ahead of this fall’s provincial election “for creating a voluntary, integrated, and holistic system of care in BC.”

The 31 recommendations are aimed at ensuring universal access to “timely, high-quality and dignified mental health and substance use supports across the spectrum of prevention, early intervention, crisis, treatment and recovery services.”