COLUMNIST
MARKETING & FUNDRAISING SARAH CHAMBERLIN
Built on Community
A
BY SARAH CHAMBERLIN
Sarah Chamberlin
“To truly advocate for patient-first care...we had to give patients a louder voice.”
t the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), “community” is an umbrella term that includes many groups. Aside from staff, there’s the community we serve, made up of roughly 37,000 patients every year; the community we collaborate with, consisting of more than 1,500 research groups internationally as well as being fully affiliated with the University of Toronto; and the community that supports us, including thousands of donors, volunteers, and mental health advocates. Together, we work toward creating a world where mental health is health. Although there is still much more work to be done, our community has come a long way towards making this vision a reality. It wasn’t too long ago that people riding the streetcar would hold their breath as they passed by the CAMH building in downtown Toronto because they believed that sharing air with CAMH patients would result in them developing a mental illness themselves. Now, that same streetcar has a designated CAMH stop. Patient recovery spaces To truly advocate for patient-first care, we knew we had to give patients a louder voice. That’s why we included community members and patient advisory groups in the design of the new inpatient rooms in two of our state-of-the-art clinical care buildings that opened last November. Their input contributed to more inclusive, respect-based and dignified spaces for patient recovery.
10
FOUNDATION Magazine
September/October 2021
foundationmag.ca
