The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre (ROMHC) launched its Lives Reclaimed fundraising campaign during Mental Health Week, with a goal of raising $75 million to support research and treatment for people experiencing mental illness and addiction.
At a May 5 press conference, Chris Ide, president and CEO of The Royal’s Foundation, and foundation board member Melissa Kruyne announced the campaign launch. They also revealed that the Waverly House Foundation had kickstarted fundraising efforts with a $14 million donation.
“We are officially launching the largest fundraising campaign ever undertaken in our city in support of mental illness and addiction care…so that more people can reclaim their lives,” said Kruyne. “The Royal cares for more than 15,000 patients every year – these are the lives that this campaign is about.”
To reflect the number of patients The Royal serves annually, Waverly House will donate an additional $1 million once the campaign reaches 15,000 community donations.
One of those 15,000 patients is Carl Bernade, who began experiencing symptoms of schizophrenia at age 20.
At the time, Bernade was playing football for the Ottawa Sooners and preparing to study criminology at Carleton University the following year. He clearly remembers the night he first experienced auditory hallucinations.
“From that night, something snapped in my head. From one second to the other, everything changed,” he said.
Bernade and his family immigrated to Canada from Haiti in 2007, where mental health supports are limited — if they exist at all.
“In Haiti, there’s no mental health organizations or opportunities for people to get well who deal with mental health. I’m fortunate to be in this country to be able to receive this help, and that The Royal really helped me when I came in,” he said.
Now 33 and working as a music producer and rapper, Bernade said the care he received at The Royal changed his life.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here right now,” he said.
The Lives Reclaimed campaign will be guided by a volunteer cabinet and aims to fund initiatives including the opening of The Royal’s urgent care clinic, research into biomarkers that could help prevent suicide, and expanded use of brain imaging in personalized treatment plans.
Bruce McKean, founder of the Waverly House Foundation, emphasized the importance of sustained funding for mental health research.
“Canada is not well known for its financial support for people beginning [their research work]. The Waverly House focus is on research. Not bricks and mortar, not clinical outreach, but the basic research from which everything else can flow,” he said.
“The science, the therapies, the technology, the pharmacology can provide or improve tools to deal with the mental health issues that are so persistent, so complex, difficult to deal with and not going away – we need better tools and further research,” McKean continued.
The Royal operates campuses in Ottawa and Brockville, offering mental health and addiction treatment, research, education, and community-based care programs.
For more information about the Lives Reclaimed campaign, visit livesreclaimed.ca.