# Pat Capponi > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pat_Capponi > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Pat_Capponi.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Capponi > Source revision: 1342848794 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Canadian writer (1949–2020)}} {{Infobox person | name = Pat Capponi | image = PatCapponi1980.png | alt = Closeup of a white woman's face; she is wearing glasses and her dark hair is cut in long bangs. | caption = Pat Capponi, in a 1980 photograph for the Toronto Star by Keith Beaty | birth_name = Patricia Ann Capponi | birth_date = July 1, 1949 | birth_place = Montreal | death_date = {{death date and age |2020|04|06 |1949|07|01|mf=yes}} | death_place = Toronto | occupation = Advocate for psychiatric consumer-survivors, others living in poverty or precarity }} '''Patricia Ann Capponi''', {{Post-nominals|size=100%|country=CAN|OOnt|CM}} (July 1, 1949 – April 6, 2020) was a Canadian writer and an advocate for [mental health](/source/mental_health) issues and [poverty](/source/poverty) issues in Canada. == Early life and education == Pat Capponi was born in [Montreal](/source/Montreal). She attended [Dawson College](/source/Dawson_College) and [Sir George Williams University](/source/Sir_George_Williams_University).{{Cite web |date=April 8, 2020 |title=PATRICIA CAPPONI Obituary |url=https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/thestar/name/patricia-capponi-obituary?id=40706135 |access-date=December 31, 2022 |website=[Legacy.com](/source/Legacy.com)}} == Career == === Activism === Capponi served as a board member at the [Centre for Addiction and Mental Health](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Order_of_Ontario) in 1993, and a Member of the [Order of Canada](/source/Order_of_Canada) in 2015.{{Cite news |date=July 1, 2015 |title=Four Nova Scotians among Order of Canada honourees |work=[The Chronicle Herald](/source/The_Chronicle_Herald) |url=http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1296405-four-nova-scotians-among-order-of-canada-honourees |access-date=December 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613134234/http://thechronicleherald.ca/canada/1296405-four-nova-scotians-among-order-of-canada-honourees |archive-date=June 13, 2018}} === 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](/source/Parkdale%2C_Toronto) neighborhood, where Capponi lived.{{Cite web |date=March 15, 2006 |title=Pat Capponi |url=https://quillandquire.com/authors/capponis-new-hat/ |access-date=June 20, 2020 |website=[Quill & Quire](/source/Quill_%26_Quire)}} She also wrote and published a newsletter, ''The Cuckoo's Nest'', and hosted a local cable television program, ''Cuckoo's Nest Cable''.{{Cite news |last=Nestruck |first=J. Kelly |date=April 24, 2020 |title=Mental-health advocate Pat Capponi spoke out for marginalized people |work=[The Globe and Mail](/source/The_Globe_and_Mail) |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-psychiatric-survivor-pat-capponi-spoke-out-for-marginalized-people/ |access-date=June 20, 2020}} == Personal life == Capponi moved to Toronto at 18, to escape her abusive family home,{{Cite news |last=Stoffman |first=Judy |date=October 18, 2014 |title=After overcoming heroin addiction, Diana Capponi helped hundreds of mental health patients |work=[The Globe and Mail](/source/The_Globe_and_Mail) |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/after-overcoming-heroin-addiction-diana-capponi-helped-hundreds-of-mental-health-patients/article21156188/ |access-date=June 20, 2020}} and had several psychiatric hospitalizations there. Capponi was openly [lesbian](/source/lesbian). Her sister [Diana Capponi](/source/Diana_Capponi) also moved to Toronto, and did similar work, with fellow survivors of abuse and addiction, before her death in 2014.{{Cite news |last=Porter |first=Catherine |date=September 27, 2014 |title=CAMH loses a shining light: Diana Capponi 'helped me be brave' |work=[Toronto Star](/source/Toronto_Star) |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/09/27/capponi.html |access-date=December 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208153736/https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/09/27/capponi.html |archive-date=December 8, 2014}} Pat Capponi was diagnosed with [lung cancer](/source/lung_cancer) in 2019, and died with medical assistance at age 70 years, on April 6, 2020, in a Toronto hospital.{{Cite news |date=April 6, 2020 |title=Anti-poverty activist and writer Pat Capponi dead at 70 |work=[CBC](/source/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation) |url=https://www.cbc.ca/books/anti-poverty-activist-and-writer-pat-capponi-dead-at-70-1.5523398 |access-date=April 9, 2020}} 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){{Cite web |date=July 2, 2015 |title=Order of Canada for Pat Capponi recognizes advocacy for those living with mental illness |url=https://recoverynet.ca/2015/07/02/order-of-canada-for-pat-capponi11496/ |access-date=June 20, 2020 |website=recovery network: Toronto}} *Lifetime Achievement Award, [CivicAction Leadership Foundation](/source/CivicAction) (2018){{Cite web |date=April 5, 2018 |title=From out of "The Cuckoo's Nest," Pat Capponi embodies true and honest leadership |url=https://leadership.civicaction.ca/diversecity-fellows/df-leadership-spotlight/pat-capponi/ |access-date=June 20, 2020 |website=CivicAction Leadership Foundation |language=en-US}} *[C. M. Hincks](/source/C._M._Hincks) Award from the [Canadian Mental Health Association](/source/Canadian_Mental_Health_Association) ==Selected publications== *''Upstairs in the Crazy House'' (1992) {{ISBN|0-670-83898-5}} *''Dispatches from the Poverty Line'' (1997) {{ISBN|0-14-026233-4}} *''The War at Home'' (1999) {{ISBN|0-670-88244-5}} *''Bound by duty : walking the beat with Canada's cops (''2000) {{ISBN|0-670-88931-8}} *''Beyond the Crazy House: changing the future of madness'' (2003) {{ISBN|0-14-100510-6}} *''Last Stop Sunnyside'' (2006) {{ISBN|0-00-639412-4}} {{ISBN|978-0-00-639412-9}} *''The Corpse Will Keep'' (2008) {{ISBN|978-1-55468-100-6}} ==References== ==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20061128120034/http://www.patcapponi.ca/ Author website] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930015951/http://www.harpercollins.ca/global_scripts/product_catalog/author_xml.asp?authorid=CA57713 HarperCollins Canada] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20060927104319/http://www.harpercollins.ca/trailers/trailer0006394124.html Video trailer] for ''Last Stop Sunnyside'' {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Capponi, Pat}} Category:1949 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Canadian mystery writers Category:Canadian non-fiction writers Category:Canadian disability rights activists Category:Psychiatric survivor activists Category:Canadian anti-poverty activists Category:Canadian lesbian writers Category:Canadian women novelists Category:Members of the Order of Ontario Category:Canadian women mystery writers Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:Canadian women non-fiction writers Category:Deaths from lung cancer in Ontario Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people Category:21st-century Canadian LGBTQ people Category:Canadian women civil rights activists --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Pat Capponi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Capponi) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Capponi?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.