Annual Report | 2018-2019

In 2018, CAMH celebrated 20 years of progress with a call to action: #MentalHealthIsHealth.

Since we launched the campaign, Canadians have shared their stories: the barriers to care and supports they’ve experienced; the wait lists faced by youth; the frustrations of family members who work to navigate a disjointed system for their loved ones.

We’ve opened the conversation and built awareness and understanding of mental disorders, but we are just getting started. Mental illness is the leading cause of disability worldwide. In Canada, 11 people die by suicide each day.

Our health care system must have mental health care at its centre. Funding in the sector falls short of the burden of illness. For too long, we've cobbled together a spectrum of care venues and providers that lacks coordination, continuity or collaboration.

Fundamental to our academic mission, we are committed to research and innovation, education and knowledge transfer – toward transforming lives of patients today and tomorrow, locally and globally. Toward social change, we are promoting mental health as the next frontier of inclusion and creating health care system capacity to build healthy families, communities, and cities.

During our campaign, we asked provocative questions to encourage conversation. Why do some illnesses get treatment while others get judgment? Is universal health care really universal if it doesn’t include mental health? Is a sick day really a sick day if no one believes you’re sick?

The CAMH response to these questions is a demand for equity. We call for parity when it comes to mental illness. It’s only right that our patients have access to integrated care in our publicly funded health care system. People with mental illness deserve a clear pathway to care and hope for recovery. That’s the change that will lead to a world in which everyone believes that life is worth living

Join us.