When I first noticed the advertisement pictured above, my initial reaction was to be pissed off that some condo development had a billboard on the CAMH grounds. Then I saw the “starting at $30 a month”, and realized that something else was up.
Apparently, this is exactly what CAMH were hoping for from their cheeky new publicity campaign for the redevelopment of the massive facility at 1001 Queen West.
“We hope that people enjoy it,” explains CAMH President and CEO Darrell Gregerson. “We hope that it makes heads turn, and that they investigate further and realize that there’s a role for all of us in this kind of lifestyle change.”
The idea to parody condo advertisements serves two functions. First, it takes uses the condo boom to get some attention, and at the same time tries to explain the substantial changes that the facility is going through.
“I think the idea there is to really grab hold of the fact that Toronto pays a lot of attention to real estate, and has a great deal of interest in it,” she chuckles. “It was taking advantage of that fact that led to the campaign being executed this way.”
“The notion of the transforming life work that goes on at CAMH was also certainly part of it, and the fact that what we’re trying to do with the buildings on the CAMH grounds is really such a direct metaphor for the same kind of life changes that people are trying to have happen in their lives.”
By building a model suite and treating the redevelopment more like a commercial project, they’re trying show that the new facility will be more about being part of the community and helping clients function in society. It will be a big shift from the imposing stone walls and bleak institutionalism of the former structure, a topic that topic that provokes a passionate response in Gregerson.
“If you think of the old way of treating mental illness and addiction, it was really about protecting people from society, and protecting society from people with mental illness, which is a really outmoded view of how we work these days. One in five Canadians are going to face a mental illness or addiction issue of some kind in their lifetime, and we can’t just shutter away everyone. If we’re going to succeed, we need people to be part of the community, and we need the community to put away some of those old stereotypes.”
“When CAMH was built, it wasn’t considered necessary to have a bathroom in every patient’s room, which you would never tolerate in a hospital for people with cancer or heart disease. The rooms were half the size of the ministry standards, and there are no telephones for clients except for in the main space by the nursing station. If you transform that to something that’s a little more humane – you’ve got a desk, a bathroom, some open space that’s comfortable to receive your family – it’s more welcoming for visitors. It’s not fancy – it’s practical, but it’s very dramatically different from how CAMH was originally constructed.”
“It’s about lifestyle, and dignified human surroundings for people with mental illness and addiction. It’s also about the city building aspect of what we’re doing – it’s really a new kind of hospital. It is very much a part of the community, and the community is part of it, which is something that hasn’t happened nearly enough in the world of mental illness and addiction.”[rssbreak]
