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opened
its doors in 1951.
It was originally built to house 1,200 residents, but within four years its services were stretched to the limit. Its wards were overcrowded with more than 2,600 residents. The applications kept coming in and the waiting lists grew longer.
As the years went by, there was a gradual change in thinking, in Canada and around the world, about the developmentally disabled in Canada. They were no longer thought of as 'sick'. They didn't have a 'health' problem but rather a 'skills' problem. They needed to learn skills that would help them to perform to their maximum potential.
The government began to plan the gradual removal of residents from the Rideau Regional Centre to the outside world. The change was dramatic. Every year a few more would leave, usually the residents with better coping skills and less severe handicaps. By 1974, the population within the Centre had been reduced to 1,662 residents. Ten years later that number was cut in half.
In 1990, it was finally Elwood Battist's turn to leave his home of 35 years and he, like all the others who went before him, had to make the big adjustment to living in the outside world. (read about support he receives now)
More than 160 families fiercely lobbied and launched a law suit
to prevent the government from closing down the Centre. A bitter
battle ensued. (read a newsletter about the lawsuit)
Finally, on January 27, 2006, the Ontario Superior
Court announced that although the Rideau Regional would close its
doors, the families and guardians of the people still inside had
the right to make the ultimate decision on the placement of their
loved ones. (read the ruling .pdf
file )
Read the Evolution
of Services for Ontarians with a Developmental Disability.
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