People with mental health and addictions issues say a store in Toronto that hands out free clothing for special events has boosted their self-esteem and helped them get their lives back on track.
Suits Me Fine Boutique, a two-decades-old store run on donations by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), offers people in recovery everything from t-shirts and jeans to formal suits for job interviews. The store recently held its annual fashion show, where clients dressed up and showed off their newfound confidence on the runway.
Alazar, who is being treated for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) triggered by the loss of his family in Ethiopia, said the clothing has given him the self-esteem he needs to go back to school.
“I never thought that I would amount to what I am today,” he said. “All hope was lost but now the glimpse of hope is back and it is just awesome.”
Alazar said he no longer feels people look at him as “dirty” but as “maybe a respectable person trying to integrate into society.”
Salima, who has overcome PTSD and substance abuse through therapy at CAMH, said she too has regained the self-confidence to head back to school.
“They don’t know how much of a difference they have made,” she said. “It is just not clothes; they’ve given me back a life.”
Salima said the clothes also relieve some of her financial burdens.
“I can stand on my own two feet and it is because of this Suits Me Fine boutique,” she said.
CAMH staff physician Dr. Jonathan Bertram, who has worked with Salima, said the clothing offers clients “in some ways, an opportunity to feel like anyone else.”
The fashion show also helps with recovery and confidence-building, because clients can “finally show themselves to others in a public forum, in a way they probably didn’t feel like they could before,” said Dr. Bertram. “With confidence.”
With a report from CTV’s medical specialist Avis Favaro and producer Elizabeth St. Philip
