Law and Mental Health Program

CAMH Annual Report to the Community 2006 - 2007

Dr. Howard Barbaree, Dr. Paul Garfinkel, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care George Smitherman, and Dr. Shaheen Darani at the opening of the new Women’s Medium Secure Forensic Unit. “Specialized inpatient hospital care for women in the forensic system is part of a larger continuum of care that is critical for women with mental health issues,” says Dr. Garfinkel.

CAMH filled a longstanding gap in both the mental health and justice systems when it opened the new six-bed Women’s Medium Secure Forensic Unit. The unit is the only facility in Ontario designed to treat women with serious mental illness who have been charged with a crime, and who need specialized care and rehabilitation.

$34 billion Estimated annual cost of mental illness and addiction in Ontario, mostly due to lost productivity.

“The number of women entering the forensic system with complex mental health issues is growing, yet few services are geared to their distinct needs,” says CAMH staff psychiatrist Dr. Shaheen Darani. “This new women’s unit will enable us to provide state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary programs that address specific women’s issues—including trauma, relapse prevention, life skills and parenting—in an environment of safety, optimism and hope.”

“The health care system can be a maze for people with mental health and addiction problems. We take seriously the need to better integrate our own services, and so this year we piloted a Centralized Assessment, Triage and Support Program (CATS) to be a single “front door” to CAMH for clients, families, referring physicians and hospitals. I'm proud of the hard work of our staff who are starting to implement it across CAMH this year.” Judith Tompkins, Executive Vice-President, Programs, and Chief of Nursing Practice and Professional Services

Making Connections: Integration in Mental Health and Addiction

• Message from the Chair and President
• Making connections between people and clinical care
  • Law and Mental Health Program
  • Child, Youth and Family Program
  • Connecting older people with mental health and addiction services
  • Linking therapy and culture competence: Expanding services to Aboriginal people
  • Integrating the social determinants of health into care, research and education
• Connecting research with everything else we do
  • Linking research to health promotion: From the neuron to the neighbourhood
• Linking communities locally, provincially and globally
  • Helping underserved areas
  • Educating local service providers throughout Ontario
  • Reaching francophone communities
  • Building capacity in the community
  • CAMH Provincial Services
  • Connecting CAMH expertise to needs around the globe
  • Building capacity in Sri Lanka
• Building on excellence
  • Building a world-class hospital
• Financial snapshot (PDF version only)
• CAMH by the numbers (PDF version only)
• Board of Trustees as of March 31, 2007
• Senior Management Group
• How to reach CAMH

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