D. Ewen Cameron's Day Hospital and the Day Hospital Movement

D. Ewen Cameron (1901-1964) founded the first day hospital in the Western World at Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute in 1946. The authors deal with the historical development of the day hospital through an understanding of Dr. Cameron's era and his pursuits. They point out that the post-Second World War period was one of great advancement in psychiatry. Growing understanding of the patient from the psychosocial, biological, and interpersonal points of view helped bring this discipline into the arena of the general hospital. The author’s state that Dr. Cameron's ability to integrate these different levels, stimulated by his earlier collaboration with Adolf Meyer, laid the groundwork for the modern-day hospital. They consider the defining principles of the day hospital as advanced by Cameron as they relate to the Allan Memorial Day Hospital of the 1950's. The Day Hospital was a setting with no beds, a daily routine that allowed the patient to return home, as well as group and family interaction were developments that would set the stage for the expansion of the day hospital movement in Canada, the United States and Great Britain. The authors argue that this growth culminated in professional and legislative recognition of partial hospitalization as an important treatment modality. Not mentioned by the authors is that Dr. Cameron was also responsible for the Cold War era psychological torture and brainwashing experiments undertaken on unwitting patients at Montreal's Allen Memorial Institute between 1957 and 1961, funded by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.

The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

Vol. 26

no. 5

365-368

August 1981

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