Panel to address mental health, B.C. prisons, and the legacy of Mary Steinhauser

Fifty years ago this month, a B.C. Penitentiary hostage taking ended with the death of psychiatric nurse Mary Steinhauser.

It was a tragedy that raised questions about justice, mental illness, the severity of punishment and the possibility of rehabilitation – issues we’re still dealing with today, notes Port Coquitlam writer Margaret Franz.

“I couldn’t let it go by,” Franz says of the 50-year anniversary.

Franz, Steinhauser’s sister, is set to talk about mental health and prison justice in B.C. as part of a panel discussion Saturday afternoon at Coquitlam library’s City Centre branch.

After nearly a half-century living in Port Coquitlam, Franz says she’s discomfited by what she sees.

“I don’t remember ever seeing a tent city until just a few years ago,” she says.

Leaning over the table at a Port Moody coffee shop, Franz talks about “benzo gait.”

Sometimes called “fentanyl fold,” the term refers to drug users who are sometimes slumped at extreme angles. The fact that the drug toxicity crisis is so widespread it requires its own terminology underscores our shortcomings as a society, Franz says.

“I was so shocked when I heard it,” Franz says. “It’s a mental health issue that is playing itself out on the streets instead of in an institution.”

Franz is set to be joined Saturday by psychiatric nurses, a neuropsychologist, as well as the former assistant warden at B.C. Penitentiary.

Panelists include:

• Anna Tremere, who spent more than 30 years working as a nurse at Riverview Hospital and later served as curator of the Riverview Hospital Museum.
• John Higenbottam, a neuropsychologist who also worked at Riverview Hospital, has also served as co-chair of the Canadian Alliance for Mental Illness and Mental Health.
• Irene Peterson is a therapist with 40 years experience who previously worked as a psychiatric nurse.
• Former B.C. Penitentiary assistant warden Ken Peterson retired from corrections in 2000 and has since volunteered on the board of the Abbotsford Restorative Justice Society.

The panel begins at 1 p.m. The event is free but seating is limited. Click here for more information.