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One CAMH: Strategic Plan 2020-2023
Goals
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“I see courage in clients every day. Especially those who are chronically unwell and actively psychotic even with medication.”Engagement participant, CAMH strategic plan development |
Priority actions |
If you look at the corner of Queen Street West and Ossington Avenue at the beginning and again at the end of 2020, you will experience an intersection transformed. When you enter the two buildings, you will witness a transformation in mental health care.
The McCain Complex Care and Recovery Building and the Crisis and Critical Care Building will emphasize design that embraces what patients and families told us matters: privacy, dignity, access to common and green spaces, and lots of natural light. Features include a Patient and Family Resource Centre, an auditorium and a “therapeutic neighbourhood” that supports skills development and other programming to enhance patient recovery.
Over the course of One CAMH, we aspire to break ground on a forensic mental health building, which we envision as a contemporary health care environment that enables people to claim control over their pathway to recovery. And as part of the “Hope through Discovery” priority action (within Inspire), we invite support for discovery and innovation through construction of a research centre.
These buildings demonstrate our commitment to environments that are inclusive and respectful, and that challenge prejudice and discrimination. They represent important steps in our redevelopment plan to modernize and integrate patient care, research, education, health promotion and prevention activities in one location. However, they are not our end point. Until all of our environments foster well-being, we have work to do.
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
When CAMH people feel inspired, they inspire the world. To cultivate our individual and collective potentials, we must offer the best work environments and recruit the best people.
Safe and Well CAMH is a multi-year initiative that has confirmed how the health and well-being of CAMH people affect their experience and the well-being of patients. We have seen positive results from the practice and culture of team huddles, the initiation of a physician wellness and excellence strategy, a growing Wellness Centre membership and the rollout of our TIDES (Trauma-Informed De-Escalation Education for Safety and Self-Protection) program in partnership with people with lived experience.
As we reassess and grow our individual and team supports under One CAMH, we build on the solid foundation established by Safe and Well CAMH. Our commitment to embrace the value of investing in the physical and psychological health and safety of CAMH people and of fostering joy in work only deepens in a world responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. As we navigate a return to full operations, the physical and psychological safety of CAMH people remains our top priority.
To drive discovery and innovation, we must recruit and retain top talent across our clinical and academic missions. We commit to a world-class experience. We will ensure easy-to-find information and positive service experiences across a person’s career, student placement or volunteer work at CAMH—from the moment a prospective team member clicks “submit” on an application to the day they express interest in a learning and development opportunity, and beyond.
In alignment with “Fair and Just CAMH” (a priority action within Include), this work includes making central actions to support greater diversity, equity and inclusion in our workplace.
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
One discovery can change the course of many lives. Every day, CAMH scientists collaborate locally, nationally and globally for such moments.
In the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, scientists recently made groundbreaking discoveries related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They shed light on the molecular mechanisms underlying PTSD and introduce a new approach for understanding psychiatric disorders. They unlock ways to treat and even prevent PTSD symptoms.
We celebrate such achievements as we recognize that our understanding of even the basic mechanisms of mental illness remains incomplete. To close the discovery gap, our efforts focus on three areas: revolutionize understanding of the brain and the causes, biomarkers and treatments of mental illness; transform CAMH so every patient, clinician and stakeholder becomes a partner in research; and use evidence to drive systemic and social change, and to optimize care.
Convergence is critical to answering our most difficult questions about mental illness. We are redesigning structures and platforms to inspire collaboration. To accelerate progress, we envision a new, world-leading mental health research centre. It will be a state-of-the art facility, where the world’s best minds use the most advanced technologies, and where scientists, clinicians, patients and families build better tomorrows together.
Research is a critical patient service that spans the One CAMH strategic directions. Our commitments to collaboration feature again in “Patient and Family Engagement” (a priority action within Include). More of our major discovery milestones appear in “Discovery Fund” (a priority action within Impact).
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
We believe that mental health is health. In recent years, our invitation to embrace this conviction ignited a movement, and “mental health is health” has become its rallying cry. With our allies, we are ready for the next chapter.
It is time to end the prejudice and discrimination that create barriers to belonging for people with mental illness, including addiction. It is time to invest in our cause and in CAMH as the place where we unite to provide solutions.
With the support of a growing cohort of mental health advocates, it is time to build a world where mental health stands at the centre of health care and where together we can choose hope for better tomorrows.
2020–2021
2021-2022
2022–2023
Engagement participant, CAMH strategic plan development
As the manager of research ethics, Erin Bell focuses on respecting the rights and welfare of participants in CAMH research projects.
“CAMH’s Office of Health Equity is an incredible resource that does a great job educating people on the experiences and backgrounds of many of our patients. We also have renowned researchers furthering knowledge about diversity and equity, and there are community members on the Research Ethics Board providing valuable input,” says Erin. “It’s important to include these perspectives in the research process and to consider what we could be doing even better.”
Erin’s team works with the Office of Health Equity and others to create tools that support inclusion in research projects. Examples include sharing best practices for collecting socio-demographic information and ensuring that templates avoid stigmatizing and gendered language.
Erin Bell, Manager, Research Ethics
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