Fact and Fiction in the Concept of Community Care: A Historical Geographic Psychological Conundrum

In the first part of this paper, I will look at the backgrounds of Canadian psychiatric services by examining the people, ideas, and institutions of the mother country England, the USA and France which provided the prime sources of influence in the delivery of mental health services. We shall see how the Canadian system has fared in the new regime of managerial expediency-and thus why we are in the crisis that we are. This is a crisis prevalent throughout the Western World. History and psycho-geographical study are relevant only as we can apply their insights to current circumstances. Modern problems become more amenable to solution when we know how they came about.