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A new era of brain and mental-health care at Sunnybrook

November 4, 2019

 Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences CentreGroup of people at SunnybrookDr. Andy Smith at SunnybrookHonourable Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health at SunnybrookPaul Hudspith, brain cancer patient, plays the cello

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre will revolutionize the future of brain and mental health care with the construction of the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre. This state-of-the-art facility will redefine how care is delivered to patients in this first-of-its-kind centre in Canada.

Interdisciplinary teams will collaborate in this hub of innovation, leading the future of clinical care and cutting-edge research into the most complex and debilitating brain disorders, including stroke, dementia and mood and anxiety disorders.

Sunnybrook has received additional support for this centre through an investment of up to $60 million, announced by the Honourable Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health on November 4.

“Sunnybrook is deeply grateful to the province for their tremendous investment. The Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre will be an essential, leading-edge resource for brain and mental health care in Ontario and beyond,” says Dr. Andy Smith, president and CEO of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

“We are also humbled by the remarkable philanthropic support this project has received from the community, led by Garry Hurvitz. Thanks to our donors — including lead gifts from Glenn and Stacey Murphy and their children — and the inspiring generosity of many others, we have raised $60 million already. That groundswell of philanthropic support has provided an incredibly meaningful foundation for the construction of this new centre, and will impact so many lives.”

Take a look inside the future Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre

How the new Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre will help

Brain disorders are one of the leading causes of death and disability around the world. In Canada, one in three people will experience a brain disorder in their lifetime.

The new centre will be the first collaborative space in Canada that will directly connect experts across the brain sciences in a cutting-edge facility, from psychiatry, neurology, imaging, pharmacology, neurosurgery, geriatric health and beyond.

Here, mental and physical health will be integrated with a more holistic focus and approach to treating the brain, body and mind.

“This bold new beginning will bring researchers and clinicians together under one roof in a hub of innovation and groundbreaking discovery,” says Dr. Anthony Levitt, chief of Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program. “This will advance the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and potential cures for brain disorders, and accelerate the discovery of personalized and precise treatments for patients across the age spectrum, from youth, into adulthood and the elderly.”


View a plain-text version of the infographic

Sunnybrook’s Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre

Sunnybrook’s Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre will be a new, state-of the-art facility dedicated to brain health.

It will be the first centre of its kind in Canada that will bring together, under one roof, interdisciplinary teams from across the brain sciences field. Teams from psychiatry, neurology, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, otology, neuroimaging, and beyond will redefine how care is delivered to patients.

The centre will be three storeys and 121,000 square feet.

Integration of treatment for brain and body: mental and physical health considered together, not separately.

Sunnybrook’s Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre will support these areas of care:


For more information:

Jennifer Palisoc
Communications advisor,
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
416-480-4040
jennifer.palisoc@sunnybrook.ca