Linda is Acting Senior Vice President, Clinical Care at CAMH, where she has held a variety of clinical and administrative positions. As the Executive Lead for the Gerald Sheff and Shanitha Kachan Emergency Department at CAMH, which is Ontario’s only specialized Mental Health and Addictions Emergency Department, she has overseen 85% growth in visits over 5 years. She’s also the Administrative Co-Chair of ECHO Ontario Mental Health at CAMH and the University of Toronto, which leverages multipoint videoconferencing to share best practices and clinical expertise. To date, more than 700 Health Care Providers from 200+ organizations across Ontario have participated.
Prior to her appointment as Vice President, Linda was an Executive Director at CAMH, and led the establishment of Access CAMH, which is the centralized access point for 22,000 referrals and 58,000 information/referral calls each year. Linda also secured funding for an innovative solution for mental health ALC, which was co-designed with community housing partners. The evaluation of this initiative showed high patient, family and staff satisfaction, in addition to significant cost savings.
Linda is committed to innovating to improve quality of care for patients with complex needs, and increasing access to mental health services for children, youth and adults from across Ontario.
Linda received her BA and Masters of Social Work degrees from the University of Toronto, and is completing a Certificate in Business Excellence at the Columbia Business School.