With the funding of a new psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) courtyard, the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) Foundation and generous donors like LLF Lawyers in Peterborough are helping change where and how PICU patients heal and how mental healthcare teams deliver care.
Launched with a celebratory opening event on August 6, 2025, the PICU courtyard is a pragmatic and groundbreaking healing space for some of the hospital’s most vulnerable patients. It was built with a $1.5 million investment made possible by community donations to the PRHC Foundation’s Campaign for PRHC.
“At PRHC and the PRHC Foundation, we recognize that mental health is as essential a component to healthcare as physical health and that where you heal helps determine how you heal,” says PRHC Foundation President and CEO Lesley Heighway. “Mental health is a crucial pillar of our Campaign for PRHC and we’re committed to supporting investment in modern, safe, and healing indoor and outdoor mental health spaces.”
Since the hospital opened in 2008, donors have funded the creation of all of PRHC’s other courtyards. The latest supports individuals who are experiencing a severe episode of mental illness and who often struggle with more than one condition or diagnosis at a time. Thanks to donations, PICU patients — who stay at PRHC for days or weeks at a time — will for the first time have outdoor access to natural light and fresh air, which has been proven to improve recovery outcomes and shorten hospital stays.
The partners and staff at LLF Lawyers LLP unanimously decided to allocate their donation towards the building of the PICU courtyard. Though they are regular donors to various local organizations, the gift to the PRHC Foundation was the largest ever provided by the firm.
“From the work we do with elderly people and people that have cognitive issues, we recognize that healing is not only medical,” says founding partner Bill Lockington. “Healing is contextual in some respects, including environment. Whether for respite or clinical needs, we firmly believe that environment has so much to do with success, especially in mental health.”
Taking into consideration safety and comfort, the new PICU courtyard includes seating areas that offer space for solitude or for patients to connect with care providers and loved ones, open gathering areas for socializing and group activities, shaded areas, and a tactile recreation surface.
The surroundings of the courtyard will continue to be landscaped in the coming months. A rock wall and gardens full of shrubs, trees, pollinators, and perennials will be added to the hill leading to the hospital’s south entrance.
“When you think about community and the assets of a community, healthcare is generally top of the list for people,” Lockington says. “Access to good care is really important — and not only access in terms of distance, but making sure that we have access to the best possible healthcare for our community.”
In addition to now being a member of the PRHC Foundation’s Campaign Council (a group of volunteers who champion the campaign in the community), Lockington served on the board of what was then the Civic Hospital during its amalgamation with St. Joseph’s, leading to the opening of PRHC in 2008. Back then, Lockington says, there was a lot more stigma around mental health.
“At that time, mental health was what I might almost call the ‘forgotten brother,'” he says. “We’re all very happy that over the years the hospital is expanding their services because for a long while we didn’t have adequate mental health services in the region. This is just one more step in making sure that we have the full resources that we need.”
In 2022, one in three Canadians reported their mental health had gotten worse since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and locally the number of patient visits to PRHC’s Emergency Department Mental Health & Addictions Crisis Response Unit has more than doubled in the past decade.
Within the Peterborough region, the challenge is further weighed by a rapidly growing and aging population, as well as rising rates of dementia, addictions, and mental illness. Despite this increasing need, Heighway says mental health remains a difficult area of care for fundraising.
“It’s easier to raise money for heart health and cancer care because they’ve been on people’s radar for a longer time,” she says. “So we’re incredibly grateful that there are generous donors in our region who want to direct their gifts specifically to mental healthcare priorities. They know that a mental health crisis can strike at any time and that any one of us could be just one life-changing moment away from mental illness or a substance use disorder.”
LLF founding partner Pete Lawless, who saw firsthand the result of the firm’s donation at the August 6 opening celebration, says the growing need and lingering stigma was one of the reasons the firm was compelled to direct their donation to the PICU courtyard.
“All of us were really keen on making sure that donation went to that area and this courtyard was a real natural. We were very happy to be involved and to make the gift that we did,” he says.
Given that the spaces being used for mental healthcare at PRHC were built 17 years ago and weren’t designed to support the best care possible by today’s standards, the opening of the PICU courtyard has set a new gold standard in mental healthcare. Very few hospitals in Ontario have a courtyard of its kind, and few have prioritized access to the outdoors for PICU patients.
Since the courtyard’s opening, Heighway says other health centres have reached out to PRHC’s mental health team with interest in building their own.
“An absolutely essential component to that impact is the generous region we live in,” she says. “Creating a new standard of mental healthcare at PRHC — and for the province — happened because donors were willing to give.”
For Lawless, comfort comes from not only knowing that the hospital that serves his clients and his family is making advancements in mental healthcare a priority, but that it is continually being upgraded with the most up-to-date technology and advancements because of the PRHC Foundation’s Campaign for PRHC.
“The fact that so many more things can be treated in Peterborough as a result of this campaign is so beneficial to our regional community,” he says. “The better our hospital is, the better it is for everybody who lives here. It’s very important for us to support the hospital because we all benefit from it.”
“I’m not sure everybody understands that the hospital and its services are not totally funded by the government,” Lockington adds. “The equipment depreciates while continuous innovation happens, and we need to be replacing this to keep current and to attract the very best physicians.”
While LLF Lawyers usually refrains from publicly announcing all the charitable donations they provide to the community, Lawless says this time the firm wanted to be vocal to alert more people to the benefits of supporting mental healthcare.
“We decided it was important, especially when it came to mental healthcare because it’s an area that just doesn’t get enough attention,” he says. “We wanted to make a meaningful gift, and we wanted to help inspire other people to do it, too.”
If the recent increase in the Campaign for PRHC goal from $60 million — which was already the largest Foundation campaign to date — to $70 million is any indication, LLF Lawyers has certainly been an inspiration.
“Donors like LLF who’ve jumped on board the Campaign for PRHC have inspired many more to do the same,” says Heighway. “We’re grateful not only for LLF’s donation, but their vision, leadership, and willingness to help us explain the importance of this campaign to others.”
“Every single donation of every size counts when the goal is to reimagine healthcare, and it’s that response that gave us the confidence to increase our campaign goal. We know the community is right behind us.”
If you’d like to make a donation to the Campaign for PRHC or find out more about it, visit the PRHC Foundation website at prhcfoundation.ca.
This branded editorial was created in partnership with the Peterborough Regional Health Centre Foundation. If your organization or business is interested in a branded editorial, contact us.
