Architecture and design
Toronto facility ‘integrates with urban fabric’
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto was the subject of a presentation, ‘You’ve Changed’, at May’s Design in Mental Health 2018 conference, by Jonathan Wilson, Principal and UK Healthcare Sector lead for Stantec, a multidisciplinary design practice. He was himself involved in this ambitious and unusual scheme. The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, reports.
Speaking in a session on ‘Personal Space’ on the first day of Design in Mental Health 2018, Jonathan Wilson explained that he would be focusing on the masterplanning of the CAMH site, located in downtown Toronto. The reconfiguration of the former asylum site was ‘very interesting from a mental health perspective’, but also ‘spoke to personal space’ – being ‘very much about the relationship between an individual and the broader environment’. Jonathan Wilson’s presentation covered CAMH as a mental health provider, the development of the site from a 19th-century asylum to a contemporary mental health campus, and the building projects currently under construction. He began: “The acronym, CAMH, stands for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, an organisation very much committed to changing the face of mental health – both in terms of the service, and the way people with mental health difficulties are actually experiencing their own lives.” CAMH, Jonathan Wilson explained, is Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital, and one of the world’s leading research centres in its field. It is affiliated with the University of Toronto, and is a Pan American Health Organization/World Health
Organization Collaborating Centre. He said: “CAMH’s ethos is based on three key ‘pillars’ – treatment, research activity, and engaging the community. The staff are committed to bringing these three elements together, within an integrated and broad range of services. It is more than just the words… I have seen some of the work they do, and it’s very impressive.”
A SIZEABLE ORGANISATION The Centre was established in 1998, Jonathan Wilson explained, and has three sites in Toronto – he would talk about one of these in particular – but also has 10 community sites throughout Ontario, with 530 beds and 3,000 staff, including physicians and scientists. He said: “In fact CAMH is a pretty big organisation, with an annual turnover of around C$ 300 million, and 90 different service lines. What is noticeable is that all the services – which range from Forensic Secure units and Mood and Anxiety Inpatient units to Aboriginal Service – are remarkably user- focused. Zoom out from that, however, and CAMH is all about the crossover between addiction and mental health issues, with eight specific community or geography-focused service lines.”
Jonathan Wilson said: “The big plus is that care is delivered in a normal city centre environment without barriers and stigma.”
Six ‘strategic directions’ are very much embedded in all the specifications for the organisation’s projects. These are: l Enhancing recovery by improving access to integrated care and social support;
l Establishing a reputation for outstanding service, accountability, and professional leadership;
l Creating an environment that supports recovery;
l ‘Igniting discovery and innovation’; l ‘Revolutionising’ education and knowledge exchange’;
l Driving social change.
An exterior view of the BI building – from Queen and Ossington Streets.
The D1 building looking from the south, including the Block D open space. THE NETWORK
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©Stantec
©Stantec
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