Through a physician’s lens

Submitted by Jennifer Hamilton, Communications & Public Affairs

Physician and photographer Cyrus McEachern was inspired by the reconstruction and recent opening of Willow Pavilion at Vancouver General Hospital—a tertiary mental health facility, as well as the future opening of additional tertiary mental health care resources in Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast, and the announcement in April of the $73 million health centre on the VGH site. Philanthropists Joe and Rosalie Segal donated $12 million for this new facility.

”During my final year of medical school at UBC, I had the opportunity to combine my passions for photography and medicine by documenting people and places within mental health in the lower mainland,” said Cyrus. See his photo album on Flickr.

With increased attention from families, clients, hospital administrators, government officials, and private donors to improve mental health facilities in VCH, it appears that stigma surrounding mental illness is finally beginning to shed.

The quality of these new facilities is on par with those for heart disease and cancer and are clearly warranted given that mental illness affects up to one in five people according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

These changes appear to signal a welcome transition in health care policy and point towards a bright and hopeful future for mental health care in Vancouver Coastal Health, as the generous Segal family and others have dared to envision.

Cyrus McEachern graduated from UBC’s Medical School in June 2012. He has a strong interest in the interactions between environment and health care.

He is now studying anaesthesiology at McGill University. Cyrus is also the photographer for BC Transplants campaign Live Life. Pass it On.