True and Fascinating Canadian History
Dr. Anthony Guzman, MD
Director, Ottawa's Memory Disorder Clinic
Many, many years ago, during the mid 1960's, while posted to Maple Ridge Detachment on BC's Lower Mainland, I was involved in the arrest of a young woman on a Warrant of Committal issued to the RCMP by medical psychiatrists.
It was a very peaceful arrest so the situation was not a bad experience, but the woman's unorganized mental state, babbling speech and her overall poor health left a mark on me the remainder of my life. I drove her to Coquitlam's Essondale Hospital for the Mentally Sick where she was admitted to the care of doctors and nurses.
A year or so later, I saw the same woman again while I was off duty and she was in the shopping center. I was amazed at the transformation in her appearance and her calm behaviours. On this particular day, I noticed a new person -- I watched as she very able to purchase her supplies and converse normally with other people.
The event awakened in me a curiousity about good mental health, medical research, volunteer longitudinal studies to advance research into dementias and so on. But, I was most curious about what I considered to be the amazing field of psychiatry and especially how medicine can help others.
It was an honour for me to meet Dr. Guzman and listen to him explain medicine's new research advances in dementia's and other psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Guzman presented me with two gifts of books from his academic library; Legal Issues and Medicine in Canada.
Thank you Dr. Guzman!
