Mental Health is Health is CAMH’s belief. It conveys our conviction that mental health deserves to be treated like physical health and focuses our efforts on ending prejudice and discrimination faced by people with mental illness.
For the tens of thousands of Canadians that support CAMH it is also a call to action; to help transform the way society thinks about mental health and to redefine the limits of what is possible in mental illness research and care.
While most costs related to providing direct patient care are government funded, all hospitals rely on donations to fulfill their mandates. Philanthropic support is crucial in filling the gaps: supporting the construction of dignified spaces where patients can recover, discovering new treatments to help save lives, and providing essentials and comforts so that anyone who arrives at CAMH doesn’t have to worry about having a pair of pajamas or a toothbrush.
At CAMH, our donors have enabled critical initiatives that support care, including cutting edge brain research, education and infrastructure projects, like our Queen Street redevelopment project. In particular, infrastructure projects are funded differently than operational projects. Hospitals are required by government to generate additional revenue to support new buildings.
That is why it is has become more common over the past several decades to see equipment, public areas, rooms, departments and centres within a hospital, and even entire hospital buildings, adopt the name of a donor or donor group.
For CAMH in particular, this level of philanthropic support is especially significant. Not that long ago, the level of stigma around mental illness prevented many from publicly supporting mental health causes. It was only in 2009 that CAMH recognized the McCain Family generous gift of $2 million to support the second phase of our Queen Street Redevelopment Project. This marked the first time in our history that a building had been named for a donor, signalling an important shift in public attitudes towards mental illness and addiction.
Without donor support, many advances in care and treatment would simply not be possible. We thank our donors for championing our goal to put mental health at the centre of health care and for their tremendous support.