Patients

Memories of the Former Lakeshore Psych, 1968-1972

Asylum by the Lake sincerely acknowledges the permission of the author for the reprint of this piece.

Having been a inpatient at the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital (1968-1972), I have a few things I could tell you about the LSPH. 

Yes, there are tunnels in the hospital; they at one time were used for transporting the meals to each ward, and transporting inpatients to the triage area, where the would administer electro-shock therapy, because I myself have travelled them on a stretcher to receive shock treatment.  As for the treatment of the patients on each ward on a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate it as a 3. As for the food, it was laced with Saul-Peter, yuck! Also, if a patient was disorderly, he/she would be restrained and would be put in a cold pack, which is like being wrapped up like a mummy and then having an injection of some strong tranquilizer. No way would you struggle, because every move you would make the sheets would only get tighter! So you had no choice but to settle down. 

During my stay 1968-1972 I was so hopped up on medication I thought the LSPH was the residence of the devil himself, and all the doctors, nurses and orderlies all belonged to the Nazi Gestapo. One thing that always caught my attention in front of the Administration Office [Administration Building]: was that why was one of the gargoyles, cut out of cement structure, at the front entrance? And the Moorehouse, which was located in the southwest corner of the hospital, was a good place for the patients that had acquired ground privileges, and then there was the Canteen, where the patients could spend their pin money that they earned in O.T. [Occupational Therapy] $5.00 for 1 week of  work. Wages varied! One thing I did like, every second Wednesday they would hold a dance in the recreation building [Assembly Hall] and all the patients were invited!  

One time my girlfriend, Judy and I, both decided to go AWOL from LSPH. We did pretty good, we made it all the way to Calgary, Alberta, but then we got caught by the police for sleeping in the back of a milk truck (Calgary brand?) When we got caught by the police, somehow they found out that we where from LSPH in Etobicoke, Ontario. And then we both were shipped back to the hospital. Then we where confined to our wards and lost all my privileges. Hence, I was going to be transferred to some institution near Aroura, Ontario. But then, instead they started putting lots of patients in group homes for ex-psychiatric patients in Parkdale in Toronto. 

From that time on, I have yet to return.