“As the parent of a beautiful soul who struggled yet still had so much capacity to love and care for others, Dennis felt the need to honour his daughter Rachel. For the duration of the Sunrise Challenge, Dennis—along with Rachel’s family and friends (“Rachie’s World”)—picked themselves up a little more to focus on others in their community, as Rachel would expect. “Rising up to help seemed so right, so tangible. It helped us carve a month that we could try to contribute to critical research so that some other person may be able to avoid what Rachel could not.” —Rachie’s World, 2022 Sunrise Challenge

“At Peace Collective one of our main missions is to create conversations around mental health. We believe that it is important to raise awareness about mental health to erase the stigma and help those struggling to identify what they’re experiencing to seek out help. Mental health affects us all, and the sooner we view it as a normal part of our everyday lives, the sooner we can get people the support they need. The work that CAMH does not only today in awareness and support but long term in research around the future of mental health treatment is vital both locally and worldwide. Supporting CAMH is something that we plan to do for a very long time.” —Yanal Dhailieh, Founder/Chief of Peace at Peace Collective, Sunrise Challenge sponsor

Now going into its third year, we created the Sunrise Challenge to raise vital funds that will fuel new discoveries and break down the barriers that keep people from getting help when they need it most. We rise for those who’ve been affected by mental illness, for those who’ve lost their lives or a loved one to suicide, and to show those currently struggling that they don’t have to go through this alone—that they matter, that help is out there, and that people care about them. This year we raised $1.2 million, between approximately eight thousand donors and two thousand participants. We hope to see you at the 2023 Sunrise Challenge, which is scheduled to take place during the last week of May 2023!

“In the two years since CAMH launched womenmind, we’ve seen tremendous growth and progress toward creating a sustainable focus on advancing our priorities in women’s mental health. We recruited the first-ever womenmind-funded scientist at CAMH whose research focuses on closing the gender gap in mental health by improving access to talk therapies for women worldwide. We’ve awarded seed funding to fuel the work of scientists focused on important and under-researched areas of women’s mental health. We are developing a mentorship program for women scientists. Ultimately, we are giving women in science and women in philanthropy a real opportunity to make a difference and better the lives of women living with mental illness.”—Sandi Treliving, Director, CAMH Foundation Board, Campaign Co-Chair, and champion for mental health

Inspired and empowered by your support of CAMH, we at womenmind™ tackle the unique gender issues that women face when it comes to their mental health, and facilitate opportunities for women scientists to do research for women. We find that when there are more women in science, we are able to prioritize the narratives, bodies and minds of women.

“My journey with mental health has really tested the boundaries of support in the workplace. A perfect storm of several physical and mental health challenges for my family members and my eventual battle with COVID led to an eventual episode of burnout. I could no longer balance the stresses of managing the workplace and homefront. My employer was there to support my family and I through those deepest and darkest days of my recovery. I now find energy in being an example for those who don’t think they have a voice in the workplace as it relates to their mental health. CAMH’s leadership in the Business Leader’s for Mental Health Action coalition is very inspiring for me and countless others. Mental health support in the workplace is so important for us all to feel safe about bringing our true selves to work each and every day. We have so much more work to do to eliminate the stigma associated with mental health in the workplace.”—Ken Yau, National Mental Health ERG Lead, Accenture

CAMH’s Business Leaders for Mental Health Action is a philanthropic coalition of business leaders and companies committed to improving the psychological health and safety of employees and advocating for businesses to take action. Members in this coalition commit to taking a stand in support of better mental health, breaking down stigma, implementing organization mental health strategies and helping to create a Canadian workforce where Mental Health is Health.

By November 30, 2023, Canada will have a three-digit number for suicide prevention. Like 911, the number 988 will give people experiencing thoughts of suicide an accessible and easy number to call when they need urgent help. The Public Health Agency of Canada announced that CAMH is to lead coordination of the 988 service delivery. This will build on our work on Talk Suicide, the existing national suicide prevention line in Canada. CAMH will be engaging individuals and organizations across Canada to support and inform this process. We are proud to have been given this opportunity to use our expertise and collaborate with partners in leading this critical work. Read more

CAMH will build the Canadian Youth Mental Health Insight Platform (CYMHI), a first-of-its-kind Canada-wide cooperative effort between youth mental health stakeholders. Young people experience many barriers to care: lack of local services, lack of access to the best treatments, and lack of cohesion among experts working to solve these problems. The CYMHI will address these problems by connecting youth, families, researchers, policymakers and community organizations to improve services and programming for youth across the country. The interactive web portal will enable knowledge sharing in creative new ways to empower the sharing of and learning from mental health data to better prevent, diagnose and treat youth mental illness in Canada. We are committed to investing in projects like these that will lead to concrete impacts on brain health for youth in Canada. Read more

Currently, our aging infrastructure offers little to no integration between research, care and education, and it is holding us back from taking our work to the next level. The fourth and final phase of our Queen Street home redevelopment will act as an anchor in our community, a magnet for international talent and a beacon of hope for our patients. We're very excited to share that we have big things coming this year. Look out for the formal announcement of our next milestone in early 2023.