Published Oct 11, 2024 ??? Last updated Oct 15, 2024 ??? 1 minute read
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Cara Vaccarino, president and CEO of The Royal, energized a crowd of nearly 800 community leaders as she walked out on stage at The Royal’s Leaders for Mental Health Breakfast.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia
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Close to 800 community leaders gathered on Wednesday, Oct. 9, for The Royal’s Leaders for Mental Health Breakfast, one of the largest early morning fundraising events in Eastern Ontario, raising $565,000 and counting for mental health care and research.
Held at the EY Centre, the event supports The Royal’s mission to provide innovative treatments for mental illness and substance use disorders. Cara Vaccarino, president and CEO of The Royal, addressed the audience, highlighting the need to bridge the gap in mental health-care access. “It’s our mission to close that path,” she said, emphasizing the hospital’s unique integration of research and care.
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Chris Ide, president of the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health, stressed the critical underfunding of mental health care in Canada. “In Ontario, mental illness makes up 10 per cent of the total disease burden but only receives seven per cent of health-care funding,” he noted.
The breakfast featured inspiring presentations and a research showcase, offering insights into new diagnostic and treatment innovations aimed at making care more personalized and accessible.
The Royal’s president and CEO Cara Vaccarino with Chris Ide, president of The Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia From left: Dr. Rebecca Gomez, psychiatrist at The Royal’s Operational Stress Injury Clinic; Patricia Burhunduli, MD/PhD student; Cara Vaccarino, president and CEO of The Royal; Cory Taylor; Julia Bland; and Chris Ide, president of The Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Stephanie Taylor, her husband Cory Taylor and his doctor Dr. Rebecca Gomez, psychiatrist at The Royal’s Operational Stress Injury Clinic. Gomez and her patient Cory took to the stage to speak about his success with a trial procedure while battling PTSD after retiring from the Canadian Armed Forces.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Julia Bland, a former patient, shared her touching transformative journey from severe depression and anxiety to recovery through cognitive behavioural therapy at The Royal.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Dr. Pierre Blier, director of research at The Royal Mood Disorders Clinic, discusses the ketamine treatments he introduced in Canada in 2010.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Patricia Burhunduli, a MD/PhD student studying depression and suicide at The Royal, addressed the crowd about her PhD studies focused on the neurobiology of depression and suicide and supported by advanced brain imaging technology at The Royal.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Sharon Squire, chair of The Royal’s board of trustees, and Carmen Abela, chair of The Royal’s Foundation board.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia From left: Dr. Duncan Stewart, a pioneer in Canadian cardiovascular researcher and a board member of The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research; Renée Légaré, director of the Master of Health Administration and Executive Master of Health Administration programs at the Telfer School of Management; and Dr. Jack Kitts, past president and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Jason Kitchen, chair of The Royal’s Leaders for Mental Health Breakfast, and visionary sponsor Gavin Carter, CEO of Tech Insights.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Jessica Drodge, Interventional Psychiatry Program coordinator at The Royal, explained the repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation treatments.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Cara Vaccarino, president and CEO of The Royal, spoke openly about her own mother’s struggle with mental illness and addiction, a heartfelt story of how her mother took her own life when Vaccarino was just 10 years old.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia From left: Katherine Cooligan, chair of The Royal’s Women for Mental Health and a Royal Foundation board member; Leanne Storms, estate litigator with Merovitz Potechin; Jennifer Nicol, an Ottawa-based artist; and Claudia Morrison, RBC Wealth Management Royal Trust adviser and a member of The Royal’s Women for Mental Health.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia From left: Dr. Zack Kaminsky, DIFD-Mach-Gaensslen chair in suicide prevention at The Royal; and KJ Thomas and Michelle Jackson-Brown, co-leads of the Women’s Mental Health Program at The Royal.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia Chris Ide, president of The Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health, addressed the issues around delays in receiving mental health assistance. He said that only 6.6 per cent of people who need the care, get it.Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia
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