Site Speak

CAMH Connexions

Winter 2005-06

Alternate Milieu (AM) Bed Building, Rendering by: C3-Community Care Consortium: Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects | Montgomery Sisam Architects Inc. | Kearns Mancini Architects Inc.

CAMH's plans for the exciting redevelopment of our Queen Street site are moving forward on schedule; we expect to break ground with our Alternate Milieu (AM) beds project next summer for completion in the fall/winter of 2007.

The innovative AM bed project, to be located on the most western part of CAMH's property, will be four storeys in height, with clusters of six-single rooms per floor with private washrooms and common areas. In addition to specialized hospital care, clients will be able to develop or redevelop skills that will help them to transition back into the community. For example, clients will attend programs and activities in other locations on site and in the community, to help them prepare for regular daily living.

Brenda Bloomberg is a family member who understands the impact that the hospital environment can have. Her brother has schizophrenia and has been an inpatient client at CAMH for many years.

"I have always been grateful for the existence of this organization but at the same time, I was always saddened by the conditions in which my brother lived. Mainly, because I felt like he was institutionalized," Brenda says.

Three years ago, her brother moved to CAMH's Integrated Rehabilitation Unit (IRU), a pilot project for long-term clients at the Queen Street site where renovations were made creating as home-like a setting as possible within the existing facilities.

"My brother is a different person today than he was three years ago. He still lives with his mental illness…but he is treated with dignity and respect…. He has his own room, with a lock and a telephone. These may seem like small elements but for him they ensure his independence and his privacy, both of which he and I value intensely," she says.

Our new AM buildings will be able to advance this philosophy of care much further without the limitations posed by the inflexible concrete walls, narrow hallways and below standard room sizes of our existing facilities.

"The redevelopment of the CAMH site is extraordinary and the difference it will make for the clients and their families is significant. It is building on the changes we have already started to implement and help us to ensure that CAMH and the people it serves are truly part of the larger community," Brenda says.

For more info:
See our Redevelopment pages or contact us at 416 535‑8501 ext. 1650, or by e-mail at redevelopment_feedback@camh.net

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