The new Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) officially opened today, providing healing spaces that respect the dignity of clients and their families and offer more support for interdisciplinary care and more effective treatment of concurrent disorders
CAMH has transformed its downtown campus into a modern mental health and addictions facility that provides treatment in a community setting with the construction of three new buildings. In total, more than 539,000 square feet of new space has been created in this phase of the CAMH Queen Street redevelopment project.
The Intergenerational Wellness Centre provides specialized programs for seniors with complex mental health issues as well as Canada's first inpatient program dedicated to youth struggling with both addictions and mental illness.
The Bell Gateway Building brings together outpatient programs, central clinical services, laboratories, and the support and administrative functions required by CAMH's Queen Street hub. A gymnasium shares the ground floor with the client-run Out of This World Café.
The Utilities and Parking Building features street level meeting and hearing rooms, client assessment space and a unique historical display. An environmentally efficient central plant provides heating and cooling functions for all three new buildings.
In addition to the buildings, new roads, sidewalks, boulevards and green spaces built alongside a mix of retail and affordable residential units on the CAMH site will give shape to this vibrant downtown community. It is the first hospital in Ontario to earn LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold Certification.
Carillion Health Solutions was selected to design, build, finance and maintain the redevelopment project and began construction of the new facilities in January 2010. The project reached substantial completion on May 31, 2012, on schedule and within budget. Approximately 350 construction workers were on-site daily at the peak of construction.
Infrastructure Ontario and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care have worked with CAMH and Carillion Health Solutions to redevelop the hospital, which will remain publicly owned, publicly controlled and publicly accountable. In addition, more than 25,000 private donors contributed to the redevelopment through CAMH Foundation's Transforming Lives Campaign - the world's largest fundraising campaign for a mental health hospital.
CAMH is Canada's largest mental health and addiction teaching hospital, as well as one of the world's leading research centres for addiction and mental health issues. CAMH combines clinical care, research, education, policy development and health promotion to help transform the lives of people affected by mental health and addiction issues. Fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, CAMH is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.
Infrastructure Ontario is a Crown corporation dedicated to delivering some of the province's larger and more complex infrastructure renewal projects, on time and on budget. It also manages one of the largest real estate portfolios in Canada; provides real estate services, such as asset management, and property and land management; and provides the public sector and not-forprofit organizations with long-term financing to renew public infrastructure.
Visit www.camh.ca or www.infrastructureontario.ca for more information.
Quotes:
Honourable Deb Matthews, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
“The redevelopment of CAMH supports the goals of our Action Plan for Health Care when it comes to early intervention in mental health. It's so important for people facing mental illness and addictions challenges to remain part of the community, in order to combat stigma and speed up recovery. Congratulations and to everyone who made this redevelopment possible.”
Honourable Eric Hoskins, Minister of Children and Youth Services
“CAMH's transformative new facilities will ensure that children and youth facing mental health and addictions challenges get the help they need in a leading-edge setting. I want to thank everyone at CAMH for their hard work and dedication to seeing this redevelopment through so that they can continue to provide the best possible care for families.”
Dr. Catherine Zahn, President and CEO, CAMH
“Light-filled, environmentally green and built for healing, these new buildings will help CAMH transform care for people with mental illness and addiction. Woven into the neighbourhood to break down prejudice and stigma, we're building a new kind of hospital, where being part of the community is part of the treatment.”
Contacts:
Michael Torres
Centre for Addiction and Mental
(416) 595-6015
michael_torres@camh.net
Tom Boreskie
Health Infrastructure Ontario
(416) 212-6447
thomas.boreskie@infrastructureontario.ca
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