What Next?

The stories of children and their portraits invite you into a world lost to time. The documents connected to asylum histories rarely have the experiences of youth. Through imagination, children’s experiences come to life. Their stories show how incarceration and Canadian society impacted them. But what about the present? In 2024, a renewed call to re-open Riverview Hospital (Essondale) surfaced. In 2025, Alberta introduced involuntary addictions treatment. The Selkirk Asylum is now a mental health facility. Mental health and addiction treatments are on the mind of Canadians. Yet, policies and practices remain focused on forced treatment and incarceration. Between 2008 and 2018, investigative journalist Rob Wipond found that the number of involuntary patients nearly doubled in British Columbia and Ontario. The link between care and incarceration extends to the present. The stories of Mathieu, Bertha, Sophia, Ryohei, Rivka, and Wilfrid show us the harmful impact of this treatment paradigm. Their experiences also show us how wider sociopolitical forces shaped care. History serves as a lesson for the future and shows the need to reimagine care informed by lived experiences.

Learn More

Mad School

Use this exhibit in your classroom or as professional development! Checkout the lesson plan Portraits of Mad Children available at the Mad School. (Forthcoming)

Additional Resources

- - Learn about the lived experiences of child welfare in Switzerland: https://assistance-coercition.ch/app/
  - Learn more about psychiatric nursing in Quebec: https://www.lesinfirmieresdelafolie.ca/
  - Learn about Japanese Internment: https://www.landscapesofinjustice.com/
  - Learn about psychiatric nursing in British Columbia: https://www.coquitlam.ca/892/An-Emerging-Profession-Psychiatric-Nursi

Selected Bibliography

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