One Hundred Years of Psychiatric Nursing in Western Manitoba

Beverly Hicks first came to Canada from New Zealand in the 1960s, specifically to take the psychiatric nursing program in Brandon. She planned to stay for six months but has been a Manitoba resident ever since thanks to her love of the profession. Her interest in the history of the field, and her impetus to produce a book and a documentary covering the topic, comes from that experience and seeing the changes that have happened here over the past decades.

The first psychiatric nurses completed their training at the Brandon Mental Health Centre (then known as the Brandon Hospital for Mental Diseases) on June 21, 1923. It wasn’t a full multi-year program at the time and wouldn’t be for decades, but they were the first to be trained specifically in the psychiatric field in Canada. Brandon University later became the first university in Canada to offer a post-diploma baccalaureate degree in psychiatric nursing in the 1980s, and then a four-year baccalaureate degree in the 1990s.

With mental health such a prevalent topic in the 2020s, it may be hard to believe that it was so recently that this change happened, and perhaps even harder to believe that psychiatric nursing as a registered designation only exists in Western Canada even today. In the East, psychiatric patients are cared for by general nurses who may or may not have specific psychiatric training.

Hicks tracked down the oldest psychiatric nurse she could find to interview for the book and documentary, which turned out to be 93-year-old Vivian Hildebrand of Neepawa who finished her training in 1950. With NACTV as her videographer, Hicks talked to her about her experiences at the Brandon Mental Health Centre, colloquially called the ‘North Hill’ by Westman residents until its closure in 1999. At its peak in the 1950s, the hospital housed over 1500 patients, but by the time mental health reform started to lead to its closure in favour of smaller facilities, local community supports, and outpatient options in the 1990s, that population was closer to 500.

While most Westman residents are aware that the Brandon Mental Health Centre existed here, most have no idea that this area is the birthplace of psychiatric nursing as a profession, which now has a 100-year-legacy. The scope of Hicks’ history goes right until the present day with the 2023 graduates from Brandon University’s Registered Psychiatric Nursing program and the mental health landscape in Westman that they are graduating into.

Hicks’ book is available in locations across Westman.