Angela Frisina, Chairperson

Angela has been a Board Member of OFCAN since 2018, currently serving as the Chair, with a history including roles as Secretary and Treasurer. With lived experience as both a patient and a family caregiver within the mental health and addictions system for over three decades, Angela strongly believes in the crucial role family members play in the recovery of their loved ones. She is dedicated to empowering families with knowledge and skills and to advocating for improved access to patient and family caregiver support.

Previously, she contributed her caregiver expertise as a member of the Family Advisory Council at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton (SJHH), Mental Health and Addictions Program. Angela remains an active volunteer with SJHH, representing the family perspective on the Schizophrenia Integrated Quality Council and contributing as a member of the Patient and Family Advisors pool. Additionally, Angela serves as a Volunteer Patient Advisor for the Greater Hamilton Health Network. Her extensive volunteer contributions extend to past roles on the Board of Directors of YWCA Hamilton and the Community Health Nurses Initiatives Group of the RNAO.

Bringing over 30 years of experience from her nursing career, Angela’s expertise includes community-based qualitative research with underserved communities. She holds a Master of Health Sciences degree from McMaster University and held a clinical appointment with the Faculty of Health Sciences (Nursing) at McMaster until 2020.

Mary Beth Odell, Treasurer

Mary Beth Odell, now retired, was a leader in the Canadian commercial post production industry. She is an award winning executive producer and was a partner and the general manager of Flashcut Editing, now known as Rooster Post Production.

With over twenty years of lived experience supporting family members with learning challenges and mood disorders, she knows that giving families knowledge and skills to support their loved ones at the onset of mental illness is the best way to avoid escalating illness and avert crisis.

Committed to improving access to expedient and better support for patients and their families, Mary Beth has been an active member of CAMH’s Family Advisory Committee since 2019, and has represented the family perspective on the hospital’s Digital Health Steering Committee, and The Patient & Family Learning Space Committee, among others. In addition, she is a trained volunteer facilitator with The Sashbear Foundation’s Family Connections program and has co-facilitated a DBT informed family learning course with CMHA.

Angie Hamilton

Angie is the Executive Director of Families for Addiction Recovery (FAR), a Canadian registered charity founded and operated by parents of those who struggle, or have struggled, with addiction and associated mental health disorders. She is also a member of the National Board of MADD Canada. With a background as a Tax and Estate Planning Lawyer, Angie is a past member of The Estate Planning Council of Toronto and served on the Board of Directors of Earlscourt Child and Family Centre (now Child Development Institute).

Sydney Graham

Sydney is a Patient and Caregiver Engagement Specialist and Educator. She has been involved in healthcare, both personally and professionally, for over 20 years. Sydney’s first-hand experience as a patient and family caregiver complements her extensive Patient and Family Centred Care training. Sydney advises healthcare providers and organizations, academic institutions, government organizations, governance bodies, patients and family caregivers, including: University of Toronto, Health Quality Ontario, Toronto International Summit on Leadership Education for Physicians, The Change Foundation, Canadian Critical Care Trials Group, VON, Patients Canada and various hospitals. Sydney also works with (FAR) Families for Addition Recovery and delivers Caregiver Training Seminars.

Peter Ostrowski

Peter is Vice-chair of the Family Council at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby.  He is also representing families on the hospital Internal Quality Committee.

His journey in mental health started in 2009 when a family member was diagnosed with mental illness.  The topic of family support in mental health is very dear to him as it evident that family members play a pivotal role in the treatment and recovery of their loved ones.

Peter is a nuclear engineer M.Sc, M.Eng. and Ph.D. in the area of structural engineering and a member of various technical committees at Canadian Standards Association.  He is applying his engineering experience in the field of mental health by adding logic, clarity and order to policies and procedures as well as lived experience.  He is also gathering useful information for patients and their families who navigate the field of mental health.

Clayo Laanemets

Clayo holds a Master of Public Health in Health Promotion from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, as well as a collaborative program in Addiction Studies. During her studies, Clayo researched the need for an online self-navigational tool for families affected my psychosis, inspired by her own lived experience as a caregiver to a family member with schizophrenia since she was 19 years old.

Her work efforts are focused on developing and implementing innovative programs and services for vulnerable populations, such as developing and implementing a caregiver coaching program for caregivers in distress, a mobile health bus initiative for people experiencing homelessness and planning a supervised injection site. Clayo is passionate about reducing system barriers for caregivers and their families affected by mental illness and addiction.