| Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care | |
| Location: | Penetanguishene |
| Region: | Simcoe County |
| State: | Ontario |
| Country: | Canada |
| Healthcare: | Medicare |
| Type: | Specialist |
| Specialty: | Psychiatric hospital |
| Beds: | 301 |
| Founded: | 15 August 1904 |
Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care (French: Waypoint Centre de soins de santé mentale) formerly known as Mental Health Centre Penetanguishene, is a 301-bed psychiatric hospital located on Georgian Bay in the Town of Penetanguishene, approximately north of Toronto. Waypoint provides both acute and longer-term psychiatric inpatient and outpatient services to Simcoe County, Dufferin County and Muskoka/Parry Sound. In addition, Waypoint provides the province's only high secure forensic hospital for clients served by both the mental health and justice systems. In the 1960s the hospital began to treat patients such as Peter Woodcock with LSD (otherwise known as 'acid'),[1] another form of treatment included the STU program.
Built in 1933 on the site of an old British military garrison, the Oak Ridge "Criminal Insane Building" (generaly referred to as the "New Building") served as a forensic mental health care unit for Penetanguishene[2] for 81 years. Starting in February 21, 1933 with 152 beds it was doubled in size in 1957 and eventually demolished in 2014.[3] (44.8004°N -79.9261°W)Under Dr. Elliot Thompson Barker and Dr. Gary J. Maier, the psychiatric centre was notorious for torture and use of LSD that led to its closure.[4] [5]
The Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care has remodeled itself in current years, further updating the prison. The prison currently has more than 1,200 workers.[6] Forty percent of these workers work part-time.