Megan Davies and David Reville recently presented an engaging talk on the ways in which mental health deinstitutionalization impacted psychiatric survivors and the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto. In front of a packed audience at the Parkdale library, “Locating Parkdale’s Mad History: Back Wards to Back Streets, 1980-2010” examined the motivations behind deinstitutionalization and showed how community members are remembering the important event in Canada’s madness history.
The talk is available here for audio download.
Davies, a professor at York University, is also part of The History of Madness in Canada website. Launched in 2009, the site includes a number of resources on madness history. It hosts a digital archive and research hub of historical materials going back to the 19th century, along with multi-media teaching material for educators at the secondary and post-secondary level.
Reville is a former city councillor, Ontario MPP, and chair of the Ontario Advocacy Commission. A psychiatric survivor, he currently teaches the course “Mad People’s History” at Ryerson University.
The lecture was the last talk from the Toronto Public Library’s History Matters series, which showcased historical research on Toronto.
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