Transforming lives, one step at a time
Created in 1998 and held every two years, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Transforming Lives Awards gala celebrates the lives of people recovering from mental illness and addiction. This year’s gala, which also serves as a fundraiser for research and treatment, was held at the newly redeveloped CAMH Queen Street campus on Wednesday.
“I think that powerful human stories help to improve understanding, to provide hope, to encourage people and to provide a sense a community,” says Dr. David Goldbloom, cohost of the gala and a psychiatrist at CAMH.
HARRY AND SHIRLEY YOUNG CORPORATE AWARD
Depression and mental illness are often referred to as “silent killers.” Lack of awareness and fear of stigmatization have fostered a culture in which people are reluctant to talk openly about symptoms, let alone discuss treatment.
That’s why Bell Canada launched its Let’s Talk campaign as part of Bell’s Mental Health Initiative in 2011. With Olympic athlete Clara Hughes as a spokesperson, the campaign aimed to challenge stigmas and to improve care, access and research.
By encouraging Canadians to talk and text about mental health, Bell has raised close to $7 million.
Last year, they donated $10 million to CAMH — the largest gift to the mental health industry in Canadian history.
This year, Bell is being recognized with the Harry and Shirley Young Corporate Award, which recognizes a business that has demonstrated an outstanding leadership and commitment to mental health. By creating employee education programs, funding research and working to challenge stigmas, Bell has demonstrated that the first step is to talk.
’OBSTACLES CAN BE OVERCOME’
A member of Manitoba’s Peguis First Nation, Christine McFarlane, 34, spent her early childhood in abusive adoptive and foster homes. When she was 10 and living in Ontario, her adoptive family gave her up. “I hated myself. I thought that if my parents didn’t love me, then why should I care about myself and why should anyone care about me?” she says.
By 12, she developed anorexia nervosa and began cutting. In her 20s, she regularly visited the ER with thoughts of suicide. Her life changed when her neice was born. “I wanted to be around for her and let her know that obstacles can be overcome.” Working with a CAMH psychiatrist and staff at First Nations House, she found hope. McFarlane writes about her experiences in Native Canadian magazine.
A graduate of the University of Toronto, in 2011, she received the President’s Award for Outstanding Native Student of the Year. “A few years ago, somebody told me that they saw bears around me, protecting me,” McFarlane says. “It’s a very powerful protector to have.”
HEALING THROUGH COMMUNITY
When Ravi Sarin was in Grade 10, he thought marijuana was responsible for his lack of concentration and paranoia. After he stopped smoking pot, he experienced his “first psychotic break.
“My voices were so real. My paranoia was so real,” Sarin says. “It was a tumble downward that didn’t take very long.”
With his family at his side, he was hospitalized multiple times and suicide was never far from his thoughts. “Basically, I lost my mind for seven years,” Sarin says. “I lost who I was.”
In 1991, the drug Clozapine helped stabilize Sarin’s condition, but he credits the support of his community for his recovery. “When I couldn’t have any hope for myself, they hung on to that hope for me.” Now a peer support specialist with the Assertive Community Treatment Team based out of Toronto East General Hospital, Sarin helps manage a caseload of 80 patients — roughly 90 per cent of whom suffer from schizophrenia.
Chosen from more than 100 nominations sent in from across the province, the six recipients of the Transforming Lives Award were selected for their ability to face mental illness with dignity, for the support they have provided to others and for their role as models of inspiration. For the recipients, being acknowledged has lasting effects that can help in recovery, Goldbloom says. “This is not about one night—it’s a long journey,” he says.
This year’s recipients represent not only the individual struggle and perseverance it takes to face mental illness and addiction—but the strength of a community committed to providing treatment and conquering stigma.
SHEDDING LIGHT ON DARKNESS OF DEPRESSION
Columnist John Bentley Mays, 71, has long been a proponent of the role of architecture in healing. He’s written extensively about CAMH’s redevelopment, sparking discussions about the stigmatization of mental health. But he says his most powerful piece may be his
1999 book, In the Jaws of Black Dogs: A Memoir of Depression.
“I’ve been told that my book helped to interpret the experience of depression for people who don’t have it — and this to me has been the greatest reward,” he says.
For decades, Mays battled with severe depression. His parents died before he reached adulthood and, at 27, he attempted suicide for the first time. It marked the start of a lifelong fight for recovery. “If you’re born without a foot, you still have to walk. And if you’re a chronic depressive, you still have to stumble along and get through as best you can,” he says. He’s turned his depression into productivity, developing a successful career as an author, journalist and lecturer. He currently serves as a member of the Program Advisory Committee of the Geriatric Mental Health Program.
A VOICE FOR SEEKING TREATMENT
Coupled with a bipolar disorder, Kevin Conlon’s gambling addiction nearly ruined his life — twice. “It’s kind of like a coiled snake that’s behind you, and it just waits for an opportunity to bite,” he says.
Conlon had it all — a job on Bay Street, a wife, children, a house. But he also had a gambling addiction. He lost everything. With only $38 in his pocket, Conlon checked himself into CAMH’s Transition House, a residence for men recovering from addictions. He quickly turned himself around. Within six months he began volunteering and was eventually appointed the chair of the board of directors at Transition House.
It was a powerful story of recovery and overcoming addiction, but there was just one problem — Conlon’s bipolar disorder remained undiagnosed. After 10 years, he relapsed and lost it all again. Medication and treatment helped stabilize his mood disorder and Conlon, 56, is now a sought-after public speaker for the United Way. He’s become the voice for seeking treatment and an example that recovery is possible.
WEARING THE SCARS OF HONOUR
Juliana Catalano was six when she first started selfharming. “I remember being very angry with myself and I didn’t know how to get the feeling out, so I hit myself in the face.”
As she struggled to cope with her mother’s depression and abuse, the affliction escalated to cutting and drug use. At 15, Catalano was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. She began to use drugs excessively. When she had a seizure and woke up in the hospital, she knew it was time for change. After completing drug treatment, seeing a psychiatrist and becoming stabilized on medication, Catalano, 21, began repairing her relationships with her family.
She volunteers with CAMH in a creative arts therapy program and is not ashamed of her scars. “I want to be that person where the kids can say, ‘Yeah, she’s been through it. Look at the scars that she has. If she can go through it, then maybe I can, too.’ ”