The Island Lecture Series January lecture features Dr. Tina Pranger speaking about her new book, Beyond the Asylum: The Evolution of Mental Health Care in Prince Edward Island, 1846-2017. The lecture will be held Tuesday, January 21, 2020, at 7 p.m. in the SDU Main Building Faculty Lounge on the UPEI campus.  

How we as Islanders have historically cared for these people has evolved considerably through a cycle starting with sheltering them at home or in the community, to 100 years of long term institutionalization in the 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. Today, Islanders can access a comprehensive spectrum of mental health services that include — but also go far beyond — the asylum/mental hospital. 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.

Tina Pranger, PhD (Social Science and Health), has over 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; the manager of the Rehabilitation Program, and a mental health officer, at Veterans Affairs Canada. She lives in Stanley Bridge, PEI.

Admission to the lecture is free and everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, please contact Laurie at iis@upei.ca or (902) 894-2881.