Atcheson, J. D. (1917-2004)

J. Donald Atcheson, most often known as Don Atcheson, was born on 27 July 1917 in London, Ontario. While a medical student at the University of Western Ontario in the 1930s, he was inspired by Professor George Stevenson to pursue psychiatry as a career. He lived at the London Asylum during is school years in exchange for minor services rendered during evening hours. He attained his medical degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1941. After interning at Hamilton General Hospital in 1941-1942, he joined the Navy, holding the position of Surgeon Lieutenant Commander on board a frigate that was assigned to support convoys in the North Atlantic. Dr. Atcheson was subsequently posted to a naval hospital in Newfoundland where he met and was tutored by a Navy psychiatrist, Commander Marvin Wellman. This post was Dr. Atcheson’s first psychiatric residency. Dr. Atcheson followed Wellman’s recommendation that he go to the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal for further instruction and was trained there by Dr. Ewen Cameron. After a short tenure at this institution as its Registrar, Dr. Atcheson was posted to Halifax, arriving there on the day after the riot on D-day. This was the beginning of his interest in community psychiatry. Dr. Atcheson was on active duty until the end of the war in 1945. At that time, he was offered a chance to return to the Allan Memorial Institute, but after having an interview with C.B. Farrar, he was inspired instead to spend a year at Ontario Hospital, Hamilton (1945-1946). Dr. Atcheson subsequently spent at year at the Toronto Psychiatric Hospital (1946-1947) during which time he earned a Diploma in Psychiatry from the University of Toronto (1946). The following year he obtained his certification in Psychiatry from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada [C.R.C.P.(C)]. Dr. Atcheson’s first clinical appointment was as Director of the Juvenile and Family Court Clinic in Toronto (1947-1957). He concurrently acted as a consultant to the Department of Corrections with respect to training schools (1949-1957) and briefly served as Director of Treatment Services, Department of Corrections in 1958. Resigning from the Juvenile and Family Court Clinic, he helped to create a residential treatment center for children known as the Thistletown Hospital for Emotionally Disturbed Children (later known as Thistletown Regional Centre for Children and Adolescents). He was its Superintendent from 1958 to 1969 and its Medical Director and Chief-of-Staff from 1969 to 1971. While at Thistletown, Dr. Atcheson and several of his colleagues began to participate in a psychiatric consulting service to the Eastern Arctic region of Canada. They were first contracted by the Department of National Health and Welfare in 1965 to conduct a survey of learning problems in the school system that had been imposed upon Inuit children. In 1968, Dr. Atcheson chaired a committee of fellow consultants to the Arctic, toured facilities in Alaska and the Canadian Arctic, and surveyed mental health needs, suggesting methods for providing service to Arctic communities. Subsequent agreements were made between the Government of Canada and the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry with respect to the provision of psychiatric consultation services to the north. Dr. Atcheson continued as a psychiatric consultant when he was employed by the Clarke Institute as a Senior Psychiatrist and Director of the Forensic Out Patient Division (1971-[after 1983]). Dr. Atcheson also obtained a final certification in psychiatry in 1972, when he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada [F.R.C.P.(C)]. While working at the Clarke Institute, Dr. Atcheson was called to testify at the Berger Commission (also known as the McKenzie Pipeline Inquiry) with respect to how the proposed pipeline would affect the health of the inhabitants of that region. He also acted as a consultant to the Ontario Correctional Institute in Brampton (1974-[after 1983]) and became a member of the Lieutenant Governor’s Advisory Review Board of Ontario (1975-[ca. 1998]). Additionally, he was a Councilor for the Workers Compensation Board of Appeal in the late 1990s. While holding the aforementioned clinical appointments, Dr. Atcheson also held the following academic appointments in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry: Associate (1947-57); Assistant Professor, (1957-65); Associate Professor (1965-1977); Professor (1977-1983); Professor Emeritus (1983-[2004]). He was also an Associate of the University of Toronto’s School of Nursing (1947-?) and a Special Lecturer for the University of Toronto’s Institute of Child Study (dates unknown). Dr. Atcheson was very active in several professional associations such as the Canadian Medical Association [CMA], Ontario Medical Association [OMA], Canadian Psychiatric Association [CPA], Ontario Psychiatric Association [OPA], American Psychiatric Association [APA], Medico-Legal Society (for which he was appointed to Council in 1985), and the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. He was President of the OPA in 1965, became a Fellow of the APA in 1958, and later became an Honorary Life Fellow of the same association. In addition, Dr. Atcheson chaired the Law Reform Commission’s Nucleus Committee on Privileged Communication and Evidence in the mid-1970s. Lastly, he was presented with several awards and honours such as being given a Canadian Centennial Medal in 1968, becoming an Honourary Life Member of the Ontario Child Care Workers Association, and being given an Award of Merit from the Ontario Association of Children’s Mental Health Services. Throughout his career, Dr. Atcheson authored and co-authored numerous publications, reports, and studies, particularly with respect the topics of juvenile offenders and mental health issues in the Canadian Arctic (including psychiatric disorders and forensic psychiatry in Arctic regions). Don Atcheson passed away on 25 May 2004 in his 87th year at Woods Park Lodge in Barrie. He was survived by his wife Doris Jean (Blackall) of Barrie. He was also father to Peter, Sally and Mary and grandfather to six persons.