2023-06-27 13:13:38
Hautes-Laurentides History and Genealogy Society
Posted on June 27, 2023 by In Media
The Mont-Laurier health unit. (Photo courtesy – SHGHL Collection)
By Suzanne Guénette.
In 1921, the provincial government set up the Public Assistance Service, which oversees the care given to the indigent. In the same year, efforts were made to treat venereal diseases such as gonorrhoea and syphilis, which, according to estimates at the time, affected 8.5% of the population. In 1922, he ordered the exemption from professional secrecy for doctors, certain illnesses becoming compulsory to declare. In 1924, the Tuberculosis Act came into force. Faced with the extent of the spread of this disease, known as the “white plague”, the Quebec government agreed to implement a number of recommendations made by the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis set up in 1909-1910.
In 1926, the Legislative Assembly passed the Milk Pasteurization Act, which was part of the government’s desire to reduce epidemics and the infant mortality rate. The same year, thanks to the invention of the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis, we glimpse the day when this terrible disease will disappear. In addition, the Federal Ministry of Health publishes measures to be taken to counter other diseases, some of which particularly affect children.
Creation of the Labelle County Health Unit
In January 1931, the Government of Quebec accepted the request of MP Pierre Lortie, from Labelle County, to open a health unit in Mont-Laurier. This important public health system in rural areas has the mandate of preventing contagious diseases through vaccination and setting up a service of home visits by nurses. This is the real beginning of preventive medicine in Quebec. The inauguration of the new service, on rue Mercier, took place on January 7, 1931, in the presence of Athanase David, responsible for this health service in the Taschereau government, and Pierre Lortie.
The 1930s, milestones in medicine at Mont-Laurier
On January 14, 1930, in order to respond to requests for accommodation for the elderly and orphans of his diocese, Bishop Joseph-Eugène Limoges asked Minister Alexandre Tachereau for a grant to proceed with the transformation of the former Saint-Joseph seminary in Mont-Laurier, moved to Alix Hill, into an establishment capable of accommodating these types of clientele. The granting accepted, in July 1931, the work of demolition of the old building is completed and one proceeds to the construction of the future building, with the best pieces recovered from the old structure of the seminary. The following September, the Gray Nuns of Ottawa accepted the request of Bishop Limoges to direct the hospice. The first nuns arrived on June 7, 1932 and it was Sister Saint-Donatien who took charge of the establishment.
On August 7, 1932, the nuns welcomed their first boarder and, at the end of the same month, their first two orphans. The elderly and orphans receive care appropriate to their physical condition thanks to a small infirmary service installed within its walls. Unfortunately, despite the dedication of the Gray Nuns and the doctors, the residents of Mont-Laurier still have to be hospitalized in Montreal to receive operations, specialized hospital care or urgent interventions. A car was reserved for the sick on the train that brought them to Montreal hospitals.
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