The registered charity, Museum of Mental Health Services (Toronto) Inc, formerly known as Friends of the CAMH Archives (FoCA), have expanded their scope by formally joining forces with Madness Canada/ Folie Canada to become the Museum of Mental Health (MOMH), with the well-known website as Madness Canada. This merger allows both organizations to extend their shared mandates of preservation, education, and research in the field of Canadian mental health history and its legacies.
Following a 2023 review, FoCA sought a like-minded group with which to join forces and found that Madness Canada aligned well with its aims and objectives. Combined, we are the Museum of Mental Health, a non-profit that delivers mental health educational programming and dynamic, relevant research exhibits and resources. Unification challenges our new organization to engage in the critical strategic thinking needed to create a nationally recognized source of reliable information, experiential educational modules, and insights from a history that is both troubling and inspirational.
From 1988, FoCA has been a successful charity supporting archival and historical activities at the former Queen Street Mental Health Centre, now CAMH. Its biannual newsletter (click on NEWSLETTER link at top right of page) showcase the work of emerging and established scholars in the field of mental health history in Toronto and further afield. MOMH will continue to offer the annual research scholarships started by FoCA, providing pivotal funding for emerging scholars undertaking projects in the history of mental health.
Madness Canada began in 2004 – a unique bilingual educational, research and exhibit project with a reputation for scholarly funding and community engagement. Uniting with FoCA significantly broadens Madness Canada’s reach by extending services into community heritage conservation, too often ignored in mental health. Madness Canada offers strong technical and communication capacities. Together, we are moving forward with a re-visioned mandate and a committed board of directors.
Our 2024 research funding recipients:
- Danielle Landry, “Psychiatric Consumer/survivor Businesses in Ontario, 1985-2005.”
- Suki Lee, “Analysis of Geographical Data Related to Confinement in the Asylum for the Insane, Toronto.”
- Alex Myrick, “Adolf Meyer’s Ideas in Canadian Psychiatry, 19th and 20th Centuries.”
MOMH Email: info@museumofmentalhealth.ca
MOMH Postal Address:
Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, Attn: Museum of Mental Health, 7th Kaneff Tower, York University, 4700 Keele St, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3
To donate to MOMH or to join our organization please visit our Canada Helps site.