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“If psychiatry is the youngest branch of medicine, psychiatry at U of T is a conspicuous prodigy with a brilliant future,” says Chancellor Michael Wilson.

The chancellor made the comment in the keynote address during the recent launch of the Department of Psychiatry’s faculty and staff campaign held at the Gardiner Museum. The campaign is part of the University’s Boundless campaign, which has recently surpassed $1.347 billion on its $2 billion goal.

“I am excited about the launch of Psychiatry’s campaign, because I am so hopeful about what it will make possible for the health and well-being of countless individuals and our society as a whole,” Wilson said.

The department has set a goal of 100 per cent participation in the campaign from its faculty members by this December and has committed to match dollar for dollar every donation made, up to a total of $1 million, until 2017. The department has more than 850 faculty members. 

Dr. Trevor Young, chair of the Department of Psychiatry in U of T’s Faculty of Medicine, told about 150 guests at the launch that through donations from members of the department’s senior advisory and executive committees over $250,000 has already been raised, and been matched for an overall total of $500,000.

Dr. Sandy Simpson, head of Forensic Psychiatry in the department and a member of the senior advisory committee, is one of the early donors to the campaign and directed his contribution toward a chair in Forensic Psychiatry.

“The vision of academic excellence in forensic psychiatry through the creation of an endowed chair is a vital and exciting prospect for the sub discipline,” Simpson said. “U of T has a very rich history in forensic research. It is an honour and a pleasure to contribute to the fulfilment of this vision.”  

Young said “our support speaks to our pride in the work that is undertaken by the Department of Psychiatry and sends a powerful message to the larger community that our work and vision are worthy of broad community support.”

Mental illness, Young said, “is now recognized as a crisis in human health. Long under-investigated and under-resourced, it is becoming clear that a better understanding of the scope of the crisis is needed due to the extent of its devastating impact on individuals, families and entire communities.”

While there is still a stigma attached to mental illness, Wilson said “we are making progress. And U of T has played a major role in driving this cultural change – not just on campus but in the Toronto region, across Canada and around the world.”

He noted the “brilliant success” of the inaugural MindFest, a mental health fair that took place last May and lauded the fact that U of T offers the largest training program in psychiatry in North America. Twenty-five percent of English-speaking psychiatrists in Canada and 60 percent of psychiatrists in Ontario were trained at U of T.

U of T is also the only university in Canada accredited in all three subspecialties of psychiatry – child and adolescent, geriatric and forensic.  Wilson pointed to the breakthrough contributions of Psychiatry Department researchers, including the discovery of brain dopamine deficiency, pioneering work on eating disorders, sleep disorders, schizophrenia and addictions, and the world’s first PET scanner dedicated to psychiatric research and treatment.

U of T research teams are working closely with all of its partner research hospitals, exemplifying the major convergence of talent and multidisciplinary strength here.

Professor Catharine Whiteside, dean of Medicine at U of T, said faculty are “members of a department with a history of healing minds that stretches back over 100 years…your achievements and those of your colleagues and predecessors are extraordinary.”

She said the faculty campaign is “critical” to the success of the department. The Department plans to kick off its alumni and donor campaign later this year.