A family turns loss into hope
New CAMH centre will address the unique needs of adolescents
Harv and Bobbi Lewin want to create the kind of social space their son Ryan longed for at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Ryan, 28, struggled with schizophrenia and addiction for more than a decade before taking his own life in November 2010. During his years in and out of treatment at CAMH, he often expressed the wish that there was a common area to have a cup of coffee and watch television. “He would go to the schizophrenic clinic and there was nobody to socialize with, nobody who had the same thing that he did,” Bobbi says. The Lewins decided to change that. Along with their older sons Adam and Gary, they founded a charity to benefit CAMH. Ryan, nicknamed “Duke” after Brooklyn Dodgers centerfielder Duke Snider, is memorialized in the organization’s name: Put up your Dukes. “From the day he was born, everybody called him Duke,” Harv says. “He loved it. If somebody would say, ‘Ryan Lewin’ when he was nine years old, people would say, ‘Who?’” The charity held its inaugural fundraiser on the first anniversary of Ryan’s death. The event raised over $100,000 to build and furnish Duke’s Place, a lounge in the new Intergenerational Wellness Centre opening on June 21 at CAMH’s main campus on Queen Street.
Along with 28 beds for seniors, the centre will house a 12-bed inpatient program dedicated to teenagers between 14 and 18 who are struggling with both mental illness and addictions, known as concurrent disorders. The centre is part of the second phase of CAMH’s10-year transformation from a drab and isolated institution to a modern hospital integrated with the surrounding neighbourhood.
Approximately1.2 million Canadians under 19 live with a mental illness, according to CAMH. Half of them simultaneously battle drug or alcohol addictions, and the overwhelming majority won’t access the help they need.
When the Intergenerational Wellness Centre opens its inpatient ward mid-July, it will expand the range of services offered in its Child, Youth and Family Program and offer more intensive care to a complex population, says Christina Bartha, administrative director for the addictions and Child, Youth and Family Program at CAMH.
“Serious mental health and substance abuse issues can have a huge impact on the trajectory of their life,” she says. “It’s important to have specialized services that are sensitive to the unique needs of adolescents who are at an important stage in their development.”
The centre consulted on everything from paint colours to programming with former youth clients like Nick Carveth, who sought help at CAMH’s Recovery and Education for Adolescents Choosing Health (REACH) program for his cocaine use and obsessive compulsive disorder.
“My wishes were more ideological in the sense that I felt aspects of the program should include harm reduction, which is what really helped me,” he says.
Now 22, Carveth is studying psychology and social work at Ryerson University. He says the 12 inpatient beds are crucial for young people recovering from disorders.
“I know a lot of my friends who are in detox are unable to go home because their parents won’t have them in the house any more,” he says. “It’s really important for people to be able to manage their mental health at the same time as they detox from whatever substances they’re using.”
For the Lewins, their commitment won’t stop at Duke’s Place. Bobbi says Put up your Dukes will hold an annual event to benefit CAMH “room by room,” and has already committed to raising $250,000 for the centre’s dining room.
“I couldn’t help my son, and that was very horrible for me,” she says. “Because I couldn’t help him, I have to help other people.”