Island Lecture Series presents ‘Beyond the Asylum’

The next talk in the Institute of Island Studies’ Island Lecture Series will feature Dr. Tina Pranger speaking about her book documenting the history of mental health care on Prince Edward Island. Her presentation will take place on Tuesday, January 21, at 7 pm in the Faculty Lounge of UPEI’s SDU Main Building.

Pranger is the author of Beyond the Asylum: The Evolution of Mental Health Care in Prince Edward Island 1846-2017. How Islanders have historically cared for mental health patients has evolved considerably through a cycle starting with sheltering them at home or in the community, to 100 years of long-term institutionalization in an asylum or mental hospital, followed by the growth of community-based services and the movement of hundreds of patients out of hospital and back into the community. Beyond the Asylum, the first-ever history of mental health care in PEI, richly details this often bumpy evolution of care. This story is an important one for Islanders as it reflects who we were, who we are now, and who we could be in terms of how we care for people who live with mental illness.

Pranger has more than 35 years of experience in the mental health field—as a mental health occupational therapist at St. Joseph’s Health Centre and at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto; a professor of mental health occupational therapy at Queen’s University; a researcher and the mental health consultant with the PEI Department of Health; and the manager of the rehabilitation program, and a mental health officer, at Veterans Affairs Canada. She lives in Stanley Bridge, PEI.

The lecture is free. All are welcome. For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or 902-894-2881.