The Riverview Redevelopment Project was initiated in 2002 as part of a provincial mental health plan. The goal is to build capacity for specialized mental health services within the health regions. Health authorities develop replacement beds and then patients and bed-funding are transferred from Riverview to these smaller and more modern facilities throughout BC.

The health authority facilities remaining to be developed were confirmed in February 2010 in a news release from the Ministry of Health Services.

With the locations and target completion dates now in place, Riverview Hospital is working with the health authorities to implement a well organized patient transfer and closure plan for the hospital. If the target dates in the project plan are achieved, all patient care and non-patient care services currently operating at Riverview Hospital will be transferred or discontinued by June 2012.

As the plan moves forward, the hospital services on the Riverview site will be reduced in step with the transfer of the patients. The role of Riverview Hospital is to share clinical expertise with the regional health authorities and provide support for the transfer process while maintaining high quality care until the last patient leaves.

Ensuring access to services throughout BC

Once this new model of care is completely implemented, patients and families will be able to access specialized mental health services within each regional health authority, and Riverview Hospital will discontinue services.

As of January 2012 a total of 588 Riverview replacement beds have opened in the province, and 487 Riverview patients transferred. There are 328 remaining beds to be transferred to the health authorities as part of the project and there are approximately 72 patients at Riverview as of January 2012.

Vancouver Coastal Health Authority: Vancouver Coastal opened three newly renovated facilities in 2011. Detwiller, a 30 bed facility located at UBC Hospital opened in February 2011. Langara Residence is the home of the 20 bed Provincial Neuorpsychiatry program located at St. Vincent's Hospital. Youville, a 20 bed facility for older adults opened in October. 9 new beds opened at Lakeview Care Centre in Vancouver in summer 2007.

Fraser Health Authority: a total of 180 RVH replacement beds have opened to date, located in the communities of Delta, Coquitlam, Langley, Chilliwack and White Rock. In 2004, 19 beds opened at the Delta View Habilitation Centre. Fifty-two additional beds were opened at this same facility in June 2007. Operational responsibility for Connolly Lodge (20 beds), the original prototype facility built on the Riverview site, transferred from PHSA to Fraser Health in October 2006, while Cottonwood Lodge, the 24-bed “sister” facility to Connolly, opened in November 2006. More recently brand new Memorial Cottage, a 25-bed facility built on the grounds of the Langley Memorial Hospital, opened in June 2009. 20-bed Cypress Lodge joined Cottonwood and Connolly on the Riverview site and opened in January 2010. Two additional facilities have opened in 2011. The 20-bed Cedar Ridge facility opened in Chilliwack in August and the 24-bed Oceanside facility opened in September at the Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock.

Vancouver Island Health Authority: 24 new beds opened at the Seven Oaks Tertiary Mental Health Facility near Victoria, BC in 2002. There are also 40 new beds providing psycho-geriatric care at the Sandringham Care Centre, 10 minutes from downtown Victoria,

and four beds at the St. Joseph's Hospital in Comox were funded through the Riverview Redevelopment Project.

Northern Health Authority: a total of 65 RVH replacement beds have opened – 20 at Iris House in Prince George, 14 at Bulkley Valley Lodge in Smithers, 8 at the North Peace Care Centre in Fort St. John, and 20 at Seven Sisters in Terrace. Three tertiary acute beds for residents of northern communities are located in Kamloops, co-managed with Interior Health as part of a larger acute care facility.

Interior Health Authority: a total of 139 replacement beds have been developed. In Kamloops, 40 beds opened at South Hills Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre, 13 at Hilltop House, and 44 at the new Hillside Centre adjacent to Royal Inland Hospital (this facility houses a 25-bed component of the BC Neuropsychiatry Program, in addition to adult tertiary and geriatric psychiatric patients). A further 42 beds have been transferred to existing facilities in Cranbrook (Tamarack Cottage: 7 and FW Green: 2), Vernon (Polson: 5 and Aberdeen House: 7), Osoyoos (Country Squire: 8), Penticton (Braemore: 4) and Trail (Harbour House: 9).

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Last updated: 18 January 2012