Key Issues

Intentionality – a clear and specific therapeutic purpose – is the core starting point of intentional communities with a therapeutic objective. With it, things are achievable that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. Without it, the potential of community for those who are disabled is frittered away. This was underscored again for us when we did a survey of seven such intentional [...]

A key element of the proposed Riverview Village is inclusiveness, with those with a serious mental illness and those without a mental illness welcoming, and open to, each other, mixing freely, and participating in community activities together. It’s not enough, however, to just attempt inclusiveness by community planning or wish for it. Inclusiveness needs resources, skills, initiatives, and ongoing community-staff [...]

An integral part of RVICS’ proposal for an “intentional community for the benefit of those with serious mental illness” is a mix of population – those with a serious mental illness and those without any mental illness integrated together in the same community. Having only those with a serious mental illness congregated together would risk creating just another ghetto. [...]

One of the premises of the proposed Riverview Village is that housing will be integrated, with those with a mental illness and those without a mental illness living side by side. This differs from “congregate housing” where everyone in a house or in a building, except for any staff, has a mental illness. It also differs from “scattered site” housing, [...]

An essential part of coming to live in the proposed intentional community at Riverview, if you don’t have a serious mental illness yourself, will be taking an intensive orientation course on serious mental illness. The purpose: to provide you with an understanding of what many of your neighbours will have gone through in the past (in the acute stages of [...]