Historic wall reveals stories of Ontario's first psychiatric hospital

By Michael Torres

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

For Immediate Release - October 10, 2007 - (TORONTO) - In 1860, patients of the Provincial Lunatic Asylum-- as the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) was then known - helped to build a brick wall that would conceal them and their lives from the surrounding world for more than one hundred years. Today, the wall at CAMH’s Queen Street West Site is both a monument and emotional manuscript to the lives lived at Ontario’s oldest psychiatric hospital.

This history is commemorated in Voices from the Wall,

a striking exhibit of images by photographer Tom Lackey on display at the Lennox Gallery, 12 Ossington Avenue, from Thursday October 25 through 28, 12 noon - 5 p.m. Tuesday October 23 from 12 noon - 5pm will be reserved for members of the media.

Recorded on many of the bricks are dates, names, words and symbols that carry the raw emotion and darkest thoughts of generations of former patients. Lackey, who began his work documenting the wall brick by brick three years ago, was astonished to find his vision of the wall has changed as much as the hospital it surrounds.

“At first I saw the wall as a mere structure, but as I examined it, people and their stories began to emerge - some of hope, others of pain and despair - but each one an insight into the lives and human experiences of the patients who lived in the asylum.”

More than 260 different inscriptions were found on the 2230 foot-long wall “The insights we gain from the wall are not always pleasant, but they are startling, and they speak to the deep need for understanding of those with mental illness,” said Dr. Paul Garfinkel, CAMH President and CEO.

The wall is being restored as part of CAMH’s major redevelopment of its Queen Street West site into an urban village, integrating new state-of-the-art hospital facilities into the fabric of a vibrant neighbourhood and artistic community. Patients built the original wall with their unpaid labour, and today CAMH is taking a different approach to making the repairs to this heritage structure. CAMH has partnered with Colonial Masonry, the Brick and Allied Craft Union of Canada, Local 2 and Eastern Construction to create an employment apprenticeship opportunity for a small number of its clients to learn construction craftsmanship, including repairing the heritage wall and being paid to do so.

“The patient-built wall has been alive with mad people’s history for nearly 150 years”, said Geoffrey Reaume, Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto co-founder and associate professor in Critical Disability Studies, York University. “Silent no more, these old bricks help to reveal how psychiatric patients have always sought to express themselves when few were willing to listen. The question remains: are we prepared to listen today?”

Dr. Garfinkel said: “For us at CAMH, the wall represents our history, and serves to remind us of the stigma our clients still face every day, and that we must all work to overcome.”

For more information or to arrange interviews please contact Michael Torres, Media Relations, CAMH at (416) 595-6015.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is Canada’s leading addiction and mental health teaching hospital. Integrating clinical care, scientific research, education, policy development and health promotion, CAMH transforms the lives of people impacted by mental health and addiction issues.