Teacher's belief inspired CAMH Vice-President Dionne Sinclair

September 2, 2021

Imagine the excitement when Dionne Sinclair boarded a flight in Jamaica on a warm day in December 1976 bound for Canada to join her parents in southwestern Ontario.

Left in the care of her maternal grandmother in rural Manchester two months after birth, the then nine-year-old was thrilled to be seeing them for the first time and eagerly looking forward to settling into her new home in London.

The euphoria, however, lasted a few hours as bone chilling temperatures and a blizzard greeted Sinclair and her two brothers.

“When I got up the next morning and looked outside, I saw barren and white wasteland,” she recalled. “There were no leaves on the trees, I didn’t see any insects or grass and it was so cold. I remember asking myself, ‘Why did mom bring us here’? I just wanted to go back home.”

The sudden and extreme temperature change deeply affected Sinclair to the extent that she sometimes skipped school.

Instead, she wandered off looking for a way to get to Lester B Pearson International Airport in Toronto to return to Jamaica. On a few occasions, she was rescued by police and reunited with her family.

“I had no idea where I was going,” Sinclair said. “All I knew was that I wanted to get to the airport.”

She perked up a few months later when the landscape thawed and winter turned to spring.

“The snow melted and I was so excited to see grass,” said Sinclair. “I started to feel good about myself and being in Canada.”

With self-worth boosted, a positive growth cycle was created leading to incremental professional success.

Sinclair is the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health (CAMH) new Vice-President Complex Care & Recovery and Chief Nursing Executive.

The Complex Care & Recovery Program serves patients with persistent mental illness who are highly complex with high community integration needs. The role is central to the organization’s continued clinical transformation and achievement of its strategic directions.

“Dionne’s role is important because she’s a Black woman and nurse in a major leadership role at not just any hospital but one in mental health which is an area with huge disparities when it comes to Black health,” said Dr. Onye Nnorom who leads the Black health curriculum at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“There are so many studies and stories documenting the poor care Black people have historically received in mental health care. When it comes to leadership and driving change, representation matters, but it’s even more important when the people at the table are like Dionne and have a genuine passion for community and amplifying the voices that have been suppressed in the margins. Her appointment gives me hope and should make us proud.”

Dionne Sinclair is a change agent (Photo contributed)

Assuming the new position last month, Sinclair welcomed the opportunity to be a change agent at Canada’s largest mental health teaching hospital and one of the world’s leading research centres in its field.

“I have been a nurse for quite a while, I have been in different leadership positions and it has always been my goal to get into a very senior role in the profession,” the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario member said. “The role is very appealing as I believe I can make a difference in mental health care by transforming the patient care experience and being a role model for nurses that look like me who are at the bedside and have aspirations of being leaders. I believe that you can’t be what you can’t see. Seeing someone in an executive role and modelling their behavior will inspire those coming behind.”

Sinclair succeeded Jill Campbell who returned to Mandeville, Jamaica to enjoy her retirement.

“Jill was patient-focused, caring, well respected and just a phenomenal leader who laid the foundation for me,” an award-winning body builder and fitness guru said. “That made it so much easier for me to step in to this position.”

Often, teachers have a lasting impact on students.

At Grove Town Primary School, ‘Teacher Thomas’ was Sinclair’s guiding light.

“She told me I was her ‘scholarship girl’,” she said. “That meant a lot and it stuck with me. When I came to Canada, I kept reminding myself I was Teacher Thomas’ scholarship girl which meant I am bright and I could achieve anything.”

As most newcomers trying to find their way in a new society, Sinclair faced challenges.

Coming from the Caribbean and living in a predominantly White neighbourhood made the transition more daunting.

“I had an accent of course and that meant I was branded as someone who wasn’t as bright as the other students,” she noted. “The Guidance Counsellor also told me and my older brother that we weren’t college or universal material and the best we can do is get a high school education.”

Though failing Keyboarding in Grade 10, Sinclair was hell bent on proving the Guidance Counsellor wrong.

“Mom said I couldn’t just do Geography or History because I wouldn’t be able to find a job,” she related.  “She kept insisting I had to find something that will help make me marketable.”

At the time, H.B Beal Secondary School offered a two-year Restorative Nurse Assistant (RNA) program that she successfully completed before entering Fanshawe College Diploma Nursing Program in 1986.

Graduating two years later as a Registered Nurse, Sinclair was a Medical Surgical Nurse at Cambridge Memorial Hospital for eight years, an Intensive Care Unit Nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital for four years and a Mental Health Nurse at London Psychiatric Hospital over a six-year period.

Dionne Sinclair (front row second from right) at her graduation ceremony in 1988 (Photo contributed)

She was also a Professional Practice Co-ordinator with the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, the Manager of Impatient Mental Health & Addictions at Humber River Regional Hospital, the Director of Clinical Programs at Saint Vincent Hospital in Ottawa and Director of Home & Community Care Service, Planning & Strategy with the North West Local Health Integration Network in Thunder Bay prior to joining Southlake Regional Centre in September 2019 as Director of the Medicine Program.

A year later, Sinclair was promoted to Multi-Site Director, Diversity & Cultural Advancement to focus on identifying gaps and developing strategies to create an equitable workplace environment.

Early in her nursing career, she was subjected to racism by patients, including an elderly male who bluntly declared he didn’t want a ‘n…..’ taking care of him.

“It continued over the years, but it was George Floyd’s murder last year that galvanized me to speak up and be more vocal,” said the Coalition of Black Nurses Network co-founder. “In healthcare, sometimes, you are labeled as someone who is difficult, assertive or aggressive if you are very vocal. I wanted to make sure that Black staff in organizations feel as if they belong and are valued. Their voices matter and they can contribute.”

Family means everything to Sinclair, especially her parents who paved the way for her to be successful.

When then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced an amnesty in 1973 for people in Canada without status, allowing them to apply for permanent residency, Blossom Sinclair jumped at the opportunity. Eric Sinclair joined his wife in Canada at the beginning of 1975 while Dionne and brothers Steve and Ian followed a year later.

Starting out in housekeeping at University Hospital, Sinclair’s mother retired as a Personal Support Worker.

“My mom was a very hard worker who instilled a strong work ethic in her children,” said the younger of two daughters.

Orleen, who accompanied her mom to Canada, was an Ontario Scholar who graduated from the University of Waterloo in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Management Accounting. She’s a Commodity Tax Manager at Amex Canada Inc.

In 2015, Sinclair’s older brother, Steve, was fatally shot outside an after-hours club. He was a sheet metal worker and accomplished base player.

The siblings’ relationship was very close.

“When we came to Canada, we were in the same class and the only Black kids,” Sinclair, who is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing Administration, said. “My brother was always there to defend me if anyone got in my way. He was very protective of me. He was someone who opened his home to troubled youth and mentored them. He was one of the nicest people you would ever come across. Losing him was hard for the entire family.”

The culture of excellence established by the single mom has been adopted by her daughters.

Dionne Sinclair and her three daughters (Photo contributed)

Althea Green is a Registered Nurse, Pamela Green recently completed a Master of Social Work at the University of Toronto and is an Acute Inpatient Social Worker at Cornwall Community Hospital and Breann Sinclair-Barnes is an Actuary.