Purpose–built space to advance understanding, healing and recovery
The Murphy Family Centre for Mental Health is committed to advancing the understanding and care of people with severe mental illness, including mood and anxiety disorders – some of the most prevalent brain illnesses of our time. These are illnesses that disrupt the daily lives of countless families and impact every community. In this new Centre we will address mental illness like we would other serious brain disorders such as stroke or dementia, by collaborating across medical disciplines to achieve the best possible outcomes.
The Murphy Family Centre for Mental Health will be located in the Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre where our brain specialists and researchers will work together with one goal in mind: to accelerate the understanding and treatment of brain disorders.
The Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre will link each field of brain sciences — psychiatry, neurology, neuro-imaging, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, otology and neuro-pharmacology — in an effort to accelerate research that will slow or perhaps even stop the devastation of brain disorders. By integrating psychiatry and the other brain sciences, Sunnybrook is changing how the world thinks about mental illness.
Within the Murphy Family Centre for Mental Health, inpatient psychiatric care will take place in a state-of- the- art space designed to provide a comfortable, safe and healing environment. Care will range from adolescents to adults. The design will be flexible so that adolescents and adults can be cared for in optimal conditions in dedicated units.
The space will offer bright and spacious single rooms with en-suite washrooms for patients with acute mental health concerns. Private interview rooms will allow patients to talk to their doctors in confidence. Lounges will be available for relaxing and watching television.
The Centre will also include a patient exercise room and space for yoga and other relaxation programming, along with group counselling. Patients will have access to an outdoor courtyard, and all the unit’s spaces will feature soothing colours, artwork and home-like comforts.
Read the press release.
A powerful gift
The Murphy Family has made a gift of $10 million to create the Murphy Family Centre for Mental Health at Sunnybrook. By putting their name on this space for psychiatric care, the Murphy family is making public their deep personal commitment to ensuring that people with mental illnesses receive leading-edge mental health care.
“Mental illness should not be approached any differently than other medical conditions,” says Stacey Murphy. “It should be treated like any other illness — whether that’s heart disease, cancer or diabetes. We have absolute confidence in Sunnybrook’s vision, and it is our hope that with this gift, we will reduce the stigma that prevents many from getting the help they need and deserve.”
In establishing this new unit, the Murphy family wants to send a message that they support families in our community struggling with mental illness. “If you ask almost anyone, they have either personally or someone close to them has experienced a mental health challenge,” Glenn Murphy says. “With this gift we are supporting Sunnybrook's goal of aiding families in need.”
Glenn and Stacey are close friends of Sunnybrook, whose passion is reflected by Stacey’s membership on the Foundation Board, and Glenn’s involvement in the Family Navigation Project as Chair of the Sustainability Committee.
Read the press release.
Fighting the Stigma
The stigma of mental illness is one of the main reasons people don’t seek help when they need it. Glenn and Stacey Murphy and their children are addressing that in a powerful and personal way.
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