Patricia Ann Capponi, (July 1, 1949 – April 6, 2020) was a Canadian writer and an advocate for

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

issues and

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

issues in Canada.

Early life and education

Pat Capponi was born in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. She attended Dawson College and

Sir George Williams University Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974. History In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Sainte-Hélène St ...

Career

Activism

Capponi served as a board member at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, as a part time board member of the Consent and Capacity Board and as a member of the Advocacy Commission in Ontario. Capponi was the co-facilitator of the "From Surviving To Advising" initiative undertaken by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The effort brought together consumer-survivors with psychiatry residents to allow those with lived experience to work with residents to understand new perspectives of recovery. "We, those with lived experience, must challenge the status quo," explained Capponi. "We must be the change agents, we must dare to speak our truths even when gate-keepers and those who derive their status and employment from our communities deny us our right to speak, to engage, to point out the systemic failures that guarantee their jobs and our continued poverty." For her decades of activism and leadership, Capponi was named a Member of the

Order of Ontario The Order of Ontario is a civilian honour for merit in the Canadian province of Ontario. Instituted in 1986 by Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Lieutenant Governor Lincoln Alexander, on the Advice (constitutional), advice of the Executive Council ...

in 1993, and a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

in 2015.

Writing

Capponi's published writing included several nonfiction titles and a mystery novel series. Her first five books, including ''Upstairs in the Crazy House'' (1992) and ''Beyond the Crazy House'' (2003), report on her experiences with psychiatric hospitalization and boarding house living, and contain her thoughts on improving provisions for consumer-survivors.Kathryn Church, ''Forbidden Narratives: Critical Autobiography as Social Science''. p. 26. Her last two books, ''Last Stop Sunnyside'' (2006) and ''The Corpse Will Keep'' (2008) are mysteries featuring a woman detective in Toronto's Parkdale neighborhood, where Capponi lived. She also wrote and published a newsletter, ''The Cuckoo's Nest'', and hosted a local cable television program, ''Cuckoo's Nest Cable''.

Personal life

Capponi moved to Toronto at 18, to escape her abusive family home, and had several psychiatric hospitalizations there. Capponi was openly

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

. Her sister Diana Capponi also moved to Toronto, and did similar work, with fellow survivors of abuse and addiction, before her death in 2014. Pat Capponi was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in 2019, and died with medical assistance at age 70 years, on April 6, 2020, in a Toronto hospital. In a farewell video, she encouraged her audience to "work on yourselves, work on the system, reach back, help people who are striving to be seen and need role models."

Awards

*Order of Ontario (1993) *Order of Canada (2015) *Lifetime Achievement Award, CivicAction Leadership Foundation (2018) * C. M. Hincks Award from the Canadian Mental Health Association

Selected publications

*''Upstairs in the Crazy House'' (1992) *''Dispatches from the Poverty Line'' (1997) *''The War at Home'' (1999) *''Bound by duty : walking the beat with Canada's cops (''2000) *''Beyond the Crazy House: changing the future of madness'' (2003) *''Last Stop Sunnyside'' (2006) *''The Corpse Will Keep'' (2008)

References

External links

Author websiteHarperCollins Canada
for ''Last Stop Sunnyside'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Capponi, Pat 1949 births 2020 deaths Canadian mystery writers Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian disability rights activists Psychiatric survivor activists Canadian anti-poverty activists Canadian lesbian writers Canadian women novelists Members of the Order of Ontario Canadian women mystery writers Members of the Order of Canada Canadian women activists Canadian women non-fiction writers Deaths from cancer in Ontario Deaths from lung cancer in Canada 20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people 21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people