Yorkton Psychiatric Centre was a first (and cutting edge) in 1964

Those working in the field of psychiatry and mental health treatment across Canada and the United States came to Yorkton in 1964 and 1965 in large numbers to see for themselves how a new way of treating mental health patients was being implemented at the new Yorkton Psychiatric Centre.

The new facility was a radical departure from what had been standard mental health treatment facilities in Saskatchewan: large impersonal buildings at Weyburn and North Battleford that, from the outside, could easily be mistaken for jails.

The new Yorkton Psychiatric Centre came about in large part to a new way of thinking within the provincial government, and the work of an architect who went to some lengths to understand the mindset of patients with those issues.

The Regina-based architect Kiyoshi Izumi had experimented with LSD in the late 1950s, long before it became part of the lore surrounding Timothy Leary and the 1960s "turn on, tune in, drop out" counterculture. He used his LSD experience to try to replicate the mindset of the mentally-ill so he could design a facility that was not a frightening place for psychiatric patients.

His ideal design was not adopted by the provincial government for Yorkton -- it was felt too many practical obstacles stood in the way. But a version of it was built, and remains there west of the hospital on Bradbrooke Drive. 

It was cutting edge. In fact, this year (2025), more than 60 years after it was built, it was one of three recipients of the Prix du XXe Siecle award, an honour bestowed by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the National Trust for Canada to recognize "significant modern Canadian architecture from the 20th century".