Locked wards in Canadian mental hospitals: the return to custodialism

In 1975 a survey of the open- and locked-ward practice of 38 of the 44 Canadian public mental hospitals showed that more than one third of the wards are locked 24 hours a day. This survey is the only one known to have been conducted in the last 16 years and the first to have obtained data from all 10 provinces. Hospitals with fewer than 300 beds have a significantly smaller proportion of locked wards than those with more than 600 beds.The custodial, antitherapeutic environment was the most frequently cited disadvantage of the locked ward, and facilitation of the therapeutic milieu was the most commonly cited advantage of the open ward. The most commonly cited problem of the open ward was the inability to protect the community from the dangerous, violent patient. The most frequently cited factor required to open the wards was a higher nursing staff:patient ratio, but it is suggested that this is an erroneous opinion. What is required is the organization and involvement of the patients in meaningful activities throughout the day, hospitals with fewer beds, and better relations with the community to foster public tolerance.National organizations concerned with mental hospital practice have no data on the open- and locked-ward practice in this country. There are pressures, channelled through the political and judicial systems, to lock the wards, and the Law Reform Commission of Canada has recently recommended transferring mentally ill prisoners to mental hospitals.