French homes for anglo psych patients

Two west-end anglo families are unhappy after mentally ill relatives were transferred to French-speaking foster homes far east of their familiar stomping grounds.
In the first case, a mentally ill Jewish woman from the west end was transferred out of St. Mary’s Hospital to an all-French facility in Rivière-des-Prairies. Her 76-year-old mother has complained that the area is difficult to access and that the long bus rides back to Côte-des-Neiges for treatment are dangerously taxing for her psychologically fragile daughter. Marie-Josée Quesnel, the social worker responsible for the decision, cited a shortage of west end homes.

Quesnel also transferred an elderly anglophone patient out of St. Mary’s to an all-French home in Repentigny, far from her NDG-based daughter and other family in Chateauguay. When the patient’s daughter complained of the decision, the public curator threatened to have her stripped of her private curatorship responsibilities, according to Ura Greenbaum of the Association for the Defence of People and Goods Under Public Curatorship. “They’re channelling these patients far from their social support, their family contacts and services which are all out in the west end. Is it just a coincidence? Is there some policy to get the anglos out into French institutions who get paid for the services?” asks Greenbaum. He wants the government to fund more psychiatric foster homes in anglo areas because “familiar surroundings, cultural and family support are very important for those suffering from intractable mental illness.” :

—Kristian Gravenor