The Protestant Hospital for the Insane was founded in 1881 to serve the English-speaking community of Montreal. Built on former farmland in Verdun, the hospital was completed and admitted its first patients in 1890. McGill medical students began training in psychiatry there in 1900 but the hospital only became officially affiliated with the university in 1946. Renamed the Verdun Protestant Hospital in 1924, the hospital was again renamed in 1965, this time as the Douglas Hospital, in honour of pioneering Quebec psychiatrist and social reformer Dr. James Douglas, whose family were major donors to the hospital. In 1967, the Douglas Hospital became the first psychiatric institution in Canada to receive accreditation by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, in recognition of the quality of its services. In 2006, the Douglas became a University Institute and is now known officially as the Douglas Mental Health University Institute.
Related
Douglas Hospital History and Timeline