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<\/a><\/p>\nHave you gone for lunch at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health lately?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
You should. Check out the sleek glass-and-brick buildings, the new tree-lined streets, the parks and caf\u00e9. Partway through its redevelopment, the hospital has transformed from a dark, creepy institution into a bright, inviting campus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I visited twice this week. The first time was for a tribute to a former patient\/staff member. I was so impressed by what I saw, I returned the next day for a tour.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Diana Capponi was my guide.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She runs the hospital\u2019s \u201cemployment works\u201d program, which recruits former mental health and addiction patients to work on staff as housekeepers, pharmacists, research analysts, psychologists . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She is a chain-smoking, straight-talking force of change here. As the new posh buildings have gone up, she\u2019s been hammering and sawing away at the culture inside them, trying to beautify it for \u201ccrazies\u201d like her.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She was a patient here 30-odd years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI was a human garbage can for years,\u201d she says. \u201cI spent five months here. I was locked up for at least a month of it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The tour started in the new Bell Gateway Building, the hospital\u2019s hub. A few years ago, you\u2019d have to yell at someone through a hole in a Plexiglas wall to get service. Now, there\u2019s a hospital greeter with a giant \u201cask me\u201d button as well as a concierge at a wooden desk to take your questions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about respect,\u201d says Capponi, 60. \u201cIf we won\u2019t show physical respect to people, how can you expect clinicians and staff to show them respect?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She tells me a story about the greeters. They were born out of the hospital\u2019s decision to go smoke-free three years ago. That caused some serious anxiety among patients for whom smoking is a rare pleasure in an otherwise bleak day, Capponi says.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A plan was hatched to hire security guards to enforce the new rules. Can you imagine? Capponi proposed the administration hire former patients instead. The \u201cClean Air Ambassadors\u201d wouldn\u2019t just ask patients to butt out, they\u2019d greet them, give directions, remind them to seek shade in summer and pull on their jacket in winter.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n They were so popular, they became a permanent fixture. \u201cThis past summer, there was a guy sleeping over on the sidewalk early in the morning,\u201d Capponi says. \u201cI witnessed three staff stop him to make sure he was okay. That wouldn\u2019t have happened three years ago. People would have just walked over him.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Much of the new campus is named after donors. There\u2019s the McCain building, the Peter and Shelagh Godsoe building, the Labatt and Beamish wings. Even the lobbies and elevators are named after donors. That\u2019s a big deal. A decade ago, few wealthy people would consider an addiction or anxiety treatment centre a desirable legacy. As CAMH is becoming more welcoming to its patients, so are the rest of us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But, it would be even more powerful if some of those funders admitted they\u2019d struggled with the same illnesses themselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Which brings me to the end of my tour: the Intergenerational Wellness Building. Outside, there\u2019s a children\u2019s playground, basketball court, some barbeques and tables on a pretty terrace. Inside, geriatric and youth patients have private rooms with windows that open and their own bathrooms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Up on the second floor, there\u2019s the newly named Linda Chamberlain nook, with its own plaque and photo tribute, which was unveiled at that ceremony I mentioned before.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Chamberlain was a patient here off and on for years. She later got a part-time job as a peer support worker on the very floor she\u2019d lived on.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n She founded the Dream Team, which advocates for supportive housing for mental health survivors. She runs a charity fostering the pets of mental health patients while they\u2019re in hospital. She plays the bongos in kindergarten classes despite being sick with cancer.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n You couldn\u2019t ask for a more inspiring story. I imagine patients sitting in that nook, reading about Chamberlain and feeling a twinge of hope.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Despite all the plaques here, Chamberlain\u2019s is the first tribute in the new buildings to a former patient.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n There clearly should be more \u2014 starting with one for Capponi.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Credit: Toronto Star<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Schizophrenia survivor and activist Linda Chamberlain honoured at CAMH: Porter Catherine Porter Apr 05 2013 Linda Chamberlain waits for the unveiling of a new plaque celebrating her achievements. It now adorns a wall at the Centre for Mental Health and… Continue Reading