The Patient Empowerment Society is a British Columbia, Canada, based, psychiatric patient and ex-patient driven & directed advocacy organization. The society was founded in 1991, at B.C.’s largest (then) mental health facility, Riverview hospital, in Port Coquitlam, outside Vancouver.
The society’s main purposes are:
1) to enable the direct, legitimate and meaningful involvement of mentally ill adults/their delegates in the planning, evaluation and (where appropriate) delivery of programmes and services for the severely mentally ill;
2) to ensure that sufficient & diversified levels of supportive housing, rehabilitation & training programmes, as well as temporary-stay hospital beds are available for persons in British Columbia who suffer from mental illnesses like schizophrenia and manic depression;
3) to ensure the enforcement of the “Riverview Hospital Charter of Patient Rights”, at Riverview- The Charter was developed as a result of Patient Empowerment Society advocacy, in 1994. |
