TORONTO — For the second time since 2004, Baycrest Health Science’s Mood and Related Disorders Clinic has received a major gift of $1 million from the Geoffrey H. Wood Foundation.
The first gift from the Toronto-based private charitable foundation provided the seed money to create the clinic, which has provided comprehensive mental health care to adults 65 and older across Ontario.
Since then, the clinic has established itself as one of Canada’s leading models of care for older adults struggling with depression, stress, anxiety, chronic illness, pain and bereavement.
The new gift will be matched by an additional $1 million from the Baycrest Foundation. The funds will enable the clinic to help more vulnerable seniors across the province and conduct new research exploring the benefits of non-drug therapies such as mindfulness-based reduction and problem-solving therapy in older populations.
Dr. David Conn, vice-president of education at Baycrest, said, “we are grateful to the Wood Foundation for their generous support of this program. The new funding will allow us to serve more individuals suffering from mood disorders, utilizing a broad array of innovative interventions.”
With the additional funds, the clinic will be able to hire additional staff to run extra clinics and provide problem-solving and group therapy, as well as assist with clinical research studies exploring the effectiveness of non-drug therapies for older adults with mood disorders.
The gift will also enable the clinic to increase the frequency of its tele-psychiatry consultations and follow-ups to remote and under-served areas of the province, and launch a new geriatric mental health website this year to provide educational resources to older adults and their caregivers.
Dr. Cindy Grief, medical director of the clinic, said “this is an incredible opportunity for our clinic. With the Wood Foundation’s gift, we’ll have the resources to explore innovative non-pharmacological approaches to seniors’ mental health and expand our outreach virtually.”
