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Each of us -- in our lives -- transforms. From a child to an adult … from an amateur to a professional… from a single organism to a complex human being filled with texture, nuance and unique characteristics, we all go through transformations that make us who we are at any given moment in time.
"If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies."
There is no more striking symbol of transformation than a butterfly. From egg to larvae, to leaving the safety of the cocoon and emerging as a butterfly in her unfurling glory, the transformation that takes place almost before our eyes symbolically represents hope and new beginnings.
It is not surprising that the butterfly is the symbol for the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group.
The wave of the future at the Royal is all about believing in the possibility of transformation.
Transformation that can happen with a little help from some friends: a team of dedicated researchers and mental health care workers who have taken a bold step into the future and redefined the way mental health services are delivered in Eastern Ontario. A committed team of experts bent on a single mission: to give patients with mental illness the wings they need to fly – the tools they need to leave the darkness of their cocoons and emerge as butterflies.
The Royal’s own transformation process has taken mental health care out of the shadows opting instead to shine a bright spotlight on patient care, community focused education and breakthrough research. The Royal has emerged as a centre of excellence where patients embark on new beginnings, families heal and communities unite. The butterfly represents mental health care at its best.
Much like the transformation that changes a single egg into a complex and breathtaking butterfly, the world-renowned research being carried out at the Royal transforms single ideas into some of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in the field of mental health research today. And patients are the direct beneficiaries of this work.
"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
The transformative process for patients with mental illness isn’t easy and the Royal team recognizes that. But at the Royal, the butterfly also represents possibility – the possibility that new beginnings are real… that re-birth can be achieved… and that, like butterflies taking flight after emerging from their static cocoons, patients can recover and reach new heights in their lives as productive members of society.
International writer and poet Maya Angelou once said, “We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
At the Royal, not only does the team admit those changes but also it has become a catalyst for change, injecting hope and possibility into a brighter tomorrow.