Activism

Capponi served as a board member at the 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 (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."^[1]

For her decades of activism and leadership, Capponi was named a Member of the Order of Ontario in 1993, and a Member of the Order of Canada in 2015.^[3][4]

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.^[5] Her last two books, Last Stop Sunnyside (2006) and The Corpse Will Keep (2008) are mysteries featuring a woman detective in Toronto's Parkdale neighborhood, where Capponi lived.^[4][6] She also wrote and published a newsletter, The Cuckoo's Nest, and hosted a local cable television program, Cuckoo's Nest Cable.^[2]