Krasman Centre Mission Statement:
To support and empower people affected by mental health and/or addiction challenges by providing inclusive peer-support programs.
Krasman Centre Vision Statement:
People with lived experience of mental health and/or addiction challenges live full lives of their choosing within supportive, inclusive communities.
Your Rights and Responsibilities as a Person Accessing
Programs and Services of the Krasman Centre
YOUR “RIGHTS”
- You have the right to be treated with dignity, respect and consideration at all times.
- You have the right to be informed about the services you are receiving.
- You have the right to ask about reasonable alternatives to supports/services at Krasman Centre and other agencies.
- You have the right to make your own decisions regarding your health and wellness.
- You have the right to accessible information regarding the scope and availability of services.
- You have a right to file a complaint regarding Krasman Centre, using the Krasman Centre’s Complaints Process;
- You have a right to ask questions and discuss concerns with the person(s) offering Peer Support.
- You have a right to accept or refuse service.
- You have a right to refuse to respond to a particular line of questioning.
- You have a right to end participation in services at any time.
- You have a Right to Confidentiality.
When accessing a Krasman Centre program, any information you share will remain confidential within that staff team. However, our ability to maintain confidentiality is limited when our records are subpoenaed or in the event that you, a child or another adult is in serious danger.
YOUR “RESPONSIBILITIES”
- To understand and follow the Centre’s Comfort Agreement and Code of Conduct for Person’s Accessing Programs and Services at Krasman Centre.
- To treat all staff, volunteers and person’s accessing services at Krasman Centre with dignity and respect at all times.
- To ask questions about the scope of support and services available to you should you choose to access them.
Click to view the Krasman Centre’s Privacy and Confidentiality brochure.
“What is needed is sometimes not there in time”
This Community Mental Health Centre is named in the fond memory of Lance Krasman who contributed greatly to its planning in its’ early stages. Lance was a founding member of the Markham Area Mood Disorders Association (MAMDA). Born on August 29, 1954 in Downsview, Lance attended Sir Sandford
Fleming Secondary School and briefly the University of Western Ontario. In high school, he was a star on both the junior and senior basketball teams. Lance then had a very successful career as an insurance underwriter until clinical depression made it impossible for him to continue working. His intermittent bouts of the illness also made him decide to end what had been a brief but very happy marriage out of consideration for what he felt was his wife’s best interests.
Lance was gifted – intellectually, athletically, and musically. When not acutely depressed, he showed a tremendous capacity for joy, an off-beat sense of humour, and he laughed so heartily that he could light up a room. He was excellent at chess and outstanding at pool. His jazz improvisations of popular standards on the piano were a musical treat. He read avidly, including notable books on Psychiatry, abnormal psychology, and pharmacology; furthermore, he retained what he read.
His knowledge of psychiatric mediations was legend among his fellow MAMDA members. Those who knew him best remember his intelligence, his articulateness, his outspokenness, and his compassionate caring for others. He befriended and helped many troubled consumers.
Unfortunately, despite his best efforts and other supports, three of Lance’s close friends died by their own hands in the year preceding his own passing. As well as the inevitable grief, Lance expressed concern that he should have done more, when in fact, he had done much more than anybody could reasonably expect. Perhaps, in this, Lance’s memory identifies a hazardous trap to avoid in the peer-support movement as well as many admirable qualities to emulate.
Lance passed away on September 29, 1996, much too young at 42. He is survived by his loving mother Mrs. Helen Ellis, an important source of support to him in good times and bad. He also left behind more admiring friends then he ever knew he had.
Those of us who knew Lance would rather have his person by our sides than his memorialized name on the Centre he helped build with us.
PACE REQUIEM
LANCE KRASMAN
1954 – 1996
We are pleased to share that Lance Krasman Memorial Centre for Community Mental Health is “Accredited with Commendation”. The organization has surpassed the fundamental requirements of the accreditation program.