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In late summer or early fall of 2006, CAMH will begin to build leading-edge facilities that will set new standards for best practices in care. Far from the old institutional model, the focus will be on normalizing the care environment, integrating clients into the community, providing client- and family-centred care, and tackling stigma.

Phase 1A of the redevelopment will include three Alternate Milieu buildings that will provide clients with a more home-like care setting where they can focus on recovery and build the skills they need to successfully move back into the community.

Each of the four-storey buildings will front onto one of the new streets that will run through the site. Clients will have single rooms and private washrooms in units of six, with a shared living room, dining room, kitchen, and multi-purpose rooms where they can relax and socialize.

“The design focuses on deinstitutionalizing the hospital setting and creating an environment that feels normal,” says Terry Montgomery, one of the architects for the new site. His firm, Montgomery Sisam Architects, together with Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects and Kearns Mancini Architects, have been working on CAMH’s redevelopment. Their design includes many home-like touches, including windows that open, warm interior colours, and access to outdoor patios and green space.

Clients will go to programs each day, located in different buildings on the Queen Street site or in the community. “They will be encouraged to take responsibility for getting to their programs on time, to organize and control their own day-to-day activities and start to manage their own care,” says Judith Tompkins, CAMH Chief of Nursing Programs and Professional Services and Executive Vice-President of Programs. “The focus will be on rehabilitation, recovery and building independence so that when people leave CAMH they will be able to adjust successfully to living in the community.”

Elsa Southam, a member of CAMH’s Family Council, says this definitely would have benefited her son, who was in and out of hospital for seven years. “Acute care was essential in the early stages of his crisis admissions. But if he had been able to transition within the hospital to a less intensive environment that included support, rehabilitation and continuity of care, it would have made a real difference. This has been the missing piece in recovery for many clients.”

Redevelopment at a glance

• Room for recovery: Full-scale model of an Alternate Milieu bedroom.

  CAMH is transforming its Queen Street property from a traditional psychiatric facility to a dynamic centre, integrating mental health and substance use care, research, policy, education and health promotion.
• The site will serve as the hub of CAMH’s operations, connecting with a network of satellite facilities providing services to clients in their communities.
• The multi-phase redevelopment will bring together programs and services from CAMH’s four sites.
• In Phase 1A (2006–2008), CAMH will build three Alternate Milieu buildings and an outpatient care building.
• Phase 1B (2008–2010) includes new core bed buildings for the Child, Youth and Family Program and the Geriatric Mental Health Program, and an outpatient and administration building.

Transforming CAMH, Transforming Lives 2005 - 2006 Annual Report to the Community