Maria MacMillan Endowment Fund supporting four mental health teams at NBRHC this year

Four mental health teams at the North Bay Regional Health Centre have received grants through the Maria MacMillan Endowment Fund for Mental Health.

Maria passed away in 2006 after battling an eating disorder. The fund was created in 2007 by her family, celebrating her life and a committment to caring for others.

Mental Health and Addictions receives $1,100 for a supportive training program while three other teams at the hospital each receive $500.

They include the Mental Health Clinic, Acute Inpatient Psychiatry Unit and the Mental Health and the Law program.

Initiatives include support for a volunteer childcare project, a dayroom project and a horticultural program to grow fruits and vegetables as a part of their therapeutic activity.

The North Bay Regional Health Centre Foundation along with Floyd and Ruby MacMillan of North Bay, have spent the last month surprising four teams at the Health Centre with the grants.

“Our family was devastated when we lost our bright beautiful Maria,” Ruby MacMillan says. “We miss her and mourn her to this day. Having this endowment in her name helps us by knowing that her life is having a meaningful impact by helping others through their illness,” MacMillan says.

Tammy Morison, NBRHC Foundation President and CEO, explains an Endowment Fund is created by an individual or family through a significant donation. “Every year we are pleased to help the MacMillan’s honour the memory of Maria through this grant, which in turn, helps our patients in a variety of unique ways,” Morison says. “The annual grant is generated from interest earned and the donor specifies where it will provide support-it can be a specific program or area of care within the Health Centre-and the principal is preserved in perpetuity.”