What is the Recovery Model of Mental Health?

Canada’s youth deserve better. With 1 in 5 experiencing mental illness and suicide, early intervention is critical — but our system continues to fall short. Eli’s Place is working to change this by building Canada’s first long-term, recovery-based treatment centre for young adults.

1 in 5 Canadians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime. Currently, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth in this country and 50-75% of mental illnesses begin manifesting in childhood or adolescence. Despite the fact that early intervention is key to setting young people on the road to mental health recovery, our system fails to intervene early.

Canada’s Health Care system is broken. It simply does not have the resources nor the appropriate tools to effectively treat youth experiencing mental illness. It’s high time that we transform our model of care in Canada and stop accepting stories such as this one and this one as the norm.

Eli’s Place wants to show Canadians how the Recovery-Based Model of Mental Health can revolutionize mental health care for young Canadians. We would be the FIRST such long-term care facility for youth in Canada. Here’s why the Recovery Model is worth trying:

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Key Features of a Recovery-Based Mental Health Program:

  1. Rural, residential long-term treatment centre.
  2. Individualized treatment within a therapeutic setting.
  3. Focus on building competencies to move from illness to resilience.
  4. Developing life/work skills that will make the transition back into society easier.
  5. Four phases: assessment, program, transition and aftercare.
  6. Continuous evaluation of program outcomes and participants’ progress.

In order to make this happen, Eli’s Place needs significant initial investment to purchase a rural property and get the infrastructure in place. Please consider donating or passing this on to someone you think would be interested in investing in the mental health care revolution!

Eli’s Place Communications Team

Our Eli’s Place blogs are developed & written by the Eli’s Place Editorial Team — a collaboration between staff and volunteers committed to raising awareness about serious mental illness in Canada. We aim to inform, inspire, and engage with readers who care about mental health and recovery. 

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Eli’s Place will be a rural, residential treatment program for young adults with serious mental illness. Learn more about our mission and our proven-effective model.

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Our newsletter and blogs offer consistent, original content designed to inform and educate. We explore mental health from diagnosis to treatment and resilience to recovery. Our outlook includes both a systems point of view and personal perspectives.

We're Hiring!

Eli’s Place is hiring an Executive Director to lead the opening and growth of our new residential treatment centre for young adults (18–35) living with serious mental illness. The centre will be based in Guelph, Ontario (with a minimum of three days per week on site at launch). The Executive Director will serve as the Chief Executive and operational leader, responsible for bringing the organization’s vision to life.

Interested candidates are invited to submit a cover letter and CV, addressed to Cathy Preston, by email to cathy@phcap.ca. The application deadline is February 6, 2026 at 5:00 pm ET.