CAMH not so great.

I was sitting at the Fort York Food Bank the other day having lunch and I started talking to this guy who was having some serious problems. After consulting with staff there, the person involved made the brave decision to go an check himself in to CAMH to get some help. I volunteered to accompany him. From the experience that followed, I have no idea how someone with mental illness or drug addictions could ever possibly hope to manage their way through the ridiculous screening process applied by the coldly hostile staff there.

First we were made to sit for a long while for the "nurse" to come. Then my friend was put through a gruelling interview in a steaming hot room the size of a closet. After baring a lot of personal details and issues, we were told we then had to wait in another waiting area to be assessed by a psychiatrist. I asked if I should stay with him for this, upon which the nurse sneered, "You should. You brought him here."

The waiting area was through a locked door. On the other side were two other guys waiting for their assessment who were there involuntarily. One had been chased down the street after posting a song lyric on Facebook and the other was shaking so badly from alcohol withdrawal he could barely speak for his stutter. (I saw him later walking out - "I had to make the speech of my life to get out of there," he said). Then there was my friend who genuinely wanted help.

As could probably be expected the three of them started talking to each other and making jokes. The orderlies did not like this and surrounded my friend and told him that this was a serious place and that he would have to "behave" if he wanted to stay.

Shortly after, they decided the solution was to have me removed, even though they had previously insisted I stay. My friend didn't like that and you could see he was visibly scared to be left alone with these harsh and authoritarian figures. When he stated that if I left he wanted to go with me, instead of convincing him to stay the intake team actually encouraged him to go. After we went out he tried a second time to go in, but it didn't last. He got kicked out about half an hour later for making out with one of the other patients and trying to hold the door open so his friend could get out.

So that was it. My friend was back on the street, with nowhere to go. Having spent five hours with him, I wouldn't say he's the easiest person to manage. but you would expect a place like CAMH to be prepared to deal with personalities such as his. Shame on you CAMH for your unwelcoming staff and allowing a troubled person who came to you voluntarily to be ejected back on the street.