CAMH celebrates volunteers

Pictured above: Candace Allman volunteers at CAMH’s Suits Me Fine clothing boutique.

By Patrick Callan, Communications Coordinator

Being a volunteer is truly the gift that keeps on giving. 

CAMH’s volunteers share their time, energy and passions with patients across a range of programs at the hospital. 

From our clothing boutique to our patient library; from participating in sporting activities to creative arts class, or through our corporate volunteers’ stream, our volunteers give—and get so much back. 

And it’s not just people who volunteer at CAMH. We also have a very paw-pular pet therapy volunteer program. 

So, what keeps our volunteers coming back week after week and year after year? 

Here’s what a couple of them had to say. 

“I like to see patients with smiles on their faces when they leave Suits Me Fine,” says Candace Allman, a volunteer at CAMH’s Suits Me Fine clothing boutique.

Candace started volunteering at CAMH 10 years ago after she was hospitalized for severe post-stroke depression with psychosis. She says she had a pervasive feeling of a lack of joy, so she decided to volunteer to help bring joy to patients’ lives. 

“One of my favorite things is when I see patients help each other out,” she says. 

Candace recalls seeing the kindness of strangers at Suits Me Fine on a very cold winter day. Not long after Candace gave a gentleman the last pair of mittens did a second gentleman arrive at the shop, also in dire need of mittens. 

“I had seen him around the neighbourhood. I think he lived on the street. He held up his hands and they were bare,” she says. “The first fellow took a look at him and took the mittens right off his hands and gave them to him.”

Then, the first gentleman asked for a pair of socks so Candace went over to the box with socks to find some for him. 

“Guess what we found in behind a pair of socks? Another pair of mittens! So we were able to give him mittens too,” she says. “It was so heartwarming to see somebody who had come in that was in need helping somebody else who they saw was in need.”

It’s those kinds of genuine moments that continue to inspire another CAMH volunteer as well.  

“I’ll never forget when I first started coming here,” said Cydney Lebovitz, who has led a music program for outpatients at CAMH’s Downtown East Clinic for the past five years.

“One patient would be actively talking to the voices in his head, but as soon as we put a drum in front of him he stopped. It was just about the quieting of that and focusing on something else. It was really cool.” 

Cydney decided to volunteer at CAMH when she was doing her master’s degree in psychology. At the time, CAMH’s Downtown East Clinic did not have a music program, so she saw an opportunity to combine her interests in music and helping people with mental illness.

“We started compiling song books, getting instruments and having people come,” she says. “I had no idea what was going to happen but it has worked out really well.”

Now working in her field, Cydney continues to teach CAMH outpatients music because she says it’s one of the rare situations in life where everyone is there because they want to be. 

“Life gets pretty busy, but even on the days when I’m thinking about how am I going to fit that in my day, when I leave the clinic I always feel so fulfilled,” she says. “In our life we can get pretty wrapped up in the small stuff. Coming here puts everything in perspective. I really love the patients.”  

Read more about our amazing volunteers on our social media channels using the hashtag #VolunteersofCAMH.  

If you would like to volunteer at CAMH click here for more information.