The kilburn connection: Public health nursing education and the child guidance clinics in British Columbia 1932-1950

Mental Hygiene emphasized mental illness prevention and mental health promotion. In British Columbia, Child Guidance Clinics (CGC) were established to promote mental hygiene among children. This study draws from institutional records on the CGC from Riverview Hospital archives (1932-1950). Using nurse and social worker Josephine Kilburn as a central figure, it explores linkages between the CGCs and public health nursing education at UBC, as well as the role of nursing in the mental hygiene movement. The study highlights how nursing has been taken for granted in the mental hygiene movement, as well as how nursing and social work identities were interconnected. Josephine Kilburn found ways to use both her nursing and social work identities to advantage, working across institutional boundaries at the CGC and UBC School of Nursing. Working within established social hierarchies Kilburn's work reveals changing priorities and approaches to mental health over the course of twenty years.