Lessons from the periphery: psychiatry in Saskatchewan, Canada, 1944—68

The government of the Saskatchewan Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation, when elected in 1944, established prog rammes for the state-funded care of all those suffering from mental illness. It enacted legislation covering the care and treatment of the mentally ill and created a division of the Department of Public Health, the Psychiatric Ser vices Branch (PSB), which both recr uited and trained psychiatric staff, meeting the need for non-medical staff by creating a programme for the training of psychiatric nurses in Saskatchewan. The PSB devised the Saskatchewan Plan for the deliver y of r ural services, centred on small mental hospitals of a revolutionar y design. Even though never fully instantiated, the Plan commanded worldwide attention. Saskatchewan was also remarkable for its research programmes, covering almost all aspects of psychiatry.