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One of Canada's most prominent families has pledged $5-million to build the country's first inpatient centre to treat youth with co-occurring mental illness and substance-abuse disorders.

The donation from the estates of Ken Thomson and his sister Audrey Campbell to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health will fund a 9,000-square-foot facility that will be the only of its kind in the country.

"We're all tremendously grateful," said CAMH Foundation president Darrell Gregersen. "Just a few years ago no one would dream of making a $5-million gift to a mental-health institution in Canada."

At the moment, young people with both serious substance abuse and mental-health problems have no place to go for treatment, said Dr. David Goldbloom, senior medical adviser at CAMH.

Many bounce back and forth from one specialist to another, or are excluded from mental-health care because of their addictions.

But research shows that mental illness and substance abuse often go hand-in-hand, with one triggering the other.

Approximately 1.2 million Canadian children - one in seven - has a mental illness at any time, and half of those have a serious drug or alcohol problem.

"It's two sides of the same coin," Ms. Gregersen said.

The new centre, slated to open in 2012, will house 12 inpatient beds and offer 24-hour support to approximately 220 to 250 adolescents each year, Dr. Goldbloom said.

Patients will also have access to the hospital's expanded Child, Youth and Family Program's services, including individual and group therapy, school programs, and other classes.

The new facility is part of a $100-million redevelopment project aiming to modernize CAMH, Canada's largest mental-health and addiction hospital, and better integrate the 27-acre complex with its surrounding community.

Once completed, it will include parks, shops, art galleries and a performance centre, in addition to new treatment and research facilities.

The Thomson gift, the project's fifth $5-million donation, brings the total raised for redevelopment to $74-million - the largest amount ever raised to fund mental-illness and substance-abuse care in the country, CAMH said.

Staffers say this total signals an important shift in the perception of mental illness, with more people willing to talk about the problem and acknowledge its toll.

"When Canadians such as this family come forward, not only to support these initiatives, but support them in a public way, it sends a very powerful message," Dr. Goldbloom said.

He said he hopes gifts like these will also help to legitimize the experiences of people coping with mental illness and addiction, who say the stigma associated with their disorders can make recovery even harder.

"There's a lot of blame and shame that goes along with having these issues," said Clara Locey, a former client at CAMH who has shared her experiences with tens of thousands of young people across the GTA.

Ms. Locey was 16 when she dropped out of school and got involved in a world of constant partying, raves and pills. "I was just cramming as many drugs into my body as I could," she said.

Ms. Locey hit rock bottom when she accompanied three men she'd never met to a downtown hotel room after they had promised to get her high. They did, and then proceeded to rape her, again and again.

It was the wake-up call she needed to seek treatment, she said.

"If it weren't for CAMH, I wouldn't be here today," she said.

Ms. Locey, now 24, said many still think those with mental illness or addiction problems "are not worth helping," and should be in jail instead of treatment "because it's their fault."

She said she hoped the donation and CAMH expansion would help more people in her position get the help they need.

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