1965 The BC Mental Health Act consolidated five previous laws: the Clinics of Psychological Medicine Act, Mental Hospitals Act, Schools for Mental Defectives Act, Provincial Child Guidance Clinics Act, and the Provincial Mental Health Centres Act.

In accordance with the spirit of the deinstitutionalization that had begun to sweep across Canada in the 1960s, this Act encouraged the local operation of mental health services, and also provided for the creation of mental health societies in the province.

-Caroline Lyster

• Yearwood-Lee, E. (2008). Mental Health Policies: Historical Overview. Legislative Library of British Columbia. (Background paper). Retrieved from http://www.multiculturalmentalhealth.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/legislative-library-_mental_health-policies1.pdf.

• BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services. (2013). History: BC Mental Health and Substance Use Services Timeline. BC Mental Health & Substance Use Services website. Retrieved from http://www.bcmhsus.ca/History.htm.