The Ottawa Hospital (TOH)’s Grace Kennedy says she doesn’t consider herself a regular runner. But that doesn’t mean she and her teammates can’t make a big impact during this year’s Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend.
“It’s about fundraising, community building, and friendly competition all in one,” explains the team captain of longtime TOH fundraising group Mind Over Miles. Since its founding in 2021, the team has raised more than $45,000 in support of mental health care at TOH.
“Ultimately, we need the support of our community to help us advance mental health care at The Ottawa Hospital,” adds Kennedy.
TOH’s clinical manager of Inpatient Services and Psychiatric Emergency Services at the Civic Campus, Kennedy sees firsthand the challenges that come with caring for individuals at their most vulnerable. But her story also reflects a broader theme at TOH – that of healthcare staff driving change both inside the hospital and in the community.
“My team and I work 110 per cent to do everything we can to coordinate care for our patients,” she says. “But we’re all in this together, and everyone in our community can play a part when it comes to raising awareness and fundraising for these types of initiatives.”
New mental health care facilities at the new hospital campus
Kennedy and her team regularly balance the deeply personal needs of each patient with the clinical, operational, and staffing demands of a complex mental health facility, all while fostering an environment where dignity, compassion, and recovery remain central to every decision.
Needless to say, it’s not easy. But Kennedy’s focus on patient-centred care and her accrued front-line insights have led her to become directly involved with planning the mental health facilities at TOH’s new hospital.
She says the No. 1 element that’s required to improve mental health care in Ottawa is infrastructure – specifically, more accessible therapeutic spaces. Fittingly, the new hospital will include:
- Three inpatient mental health units with private rooms and ensuite bathrooms
- Patient-centered layout
- Neuromodulation unit
- Sensory rooms for dissimulation
- Psychiatric Emergency Services with an innovative model of emergency care (EMPATH model)
- Outdoor space specifically for mental health patients where they can spend time with visitors or participate in recreational or occupational therapy
- A focus on wellness and safety
“Having that extra space is a really big win for us – it will help us create an environment for patients to thrive,” she explains. The new space will also foster surroundings conducive to healing through biophilic design, artwork, and other elements. “These aren’t just functional spaces. There’s a therapeutic sense to them as well.
“To be able to provide patients an environment that’s fully their own, to give them more privacy and more dignity – it’s really going to be amazing.”
A friendly competition to improve mental health care
Kennedy says she loves the connection between wellness and community at Tamarack Ottawa Race Weekend. As the event draws closer, she and her colleagues are already gearing up to try to outdo each other.
“We’ve got a friendly competition of who can raise the most money in which kind of mental health area,” Kennedy says. While she will run for Inpatient and Psychiatric Emergency Services, her counterparts on the team will represent other elements of mental health care at the hospital, such as Outpatient Services.
Every dollar raised by Mind Over Miles will go directly toward supporting mental health services and patient care at The Ottawa Hospital, Kennedy says.
“Any amount of donor dollars truly makes a difference,” she adds. “But I don’t really see dollars – I see thousands of moments in care that have been affected.”
Funds raised will help ensure that those navigating some of the most difficult moments of their lives receive the compassionate, high-quality care they deserve.
“I often joke with my patients that, as much as we love to get to know them, and as much as we want to be there for them in this moment, we hope to never see them again,” Kennedy says with a laugh. “I always get a couple of giggles from that line. But that’s truly what we want.”
