Peter and Donna Thomas lost their son to suicide less than two years ago.

On Thursday they donated $1 million to establish a crisis response unit for mental health at the expanded Royal Jubilee Hospital.

Todd Thomas was 36 when he jumped from the 14th floor of a New York City hotel in February 2000.

"About a month after we lost Todd, we met as a family and we chose to honour and celebrate Todd's life," said Peter Thomas, who established the Century 21 Real Estate franchise in Canada and is president of Thomas Pride Inc. in Scottsdale, AZ.

They set up the Todd Thomas Foundation, with the hope of helping to stop people who suffer from mental-health issues from deciding to take their own lives. The foundation distributes funds in B.C. and Arizona.

"Todd's been our angel. He's been giving us lots of direction on what to do and where to go," Thomas told a news conference held at the site of the Jubilee expansion project.

"The crisis response unit will provide the most appropriate, timely and dignified care for individuals living with mental illness and psychiatric disorders. It will serve as a lasting and important tribute to Todd's life.

Plans call for the new unit to be in or near the new Jubilee emergency department, already part of the layout of the $116-million hospital expansion due to be opened during April and May of 2002.

"There is something of a crisis currently in the Royal Jubilee emergency," Dr. Anthony Barale of the hospital's psychiatric department told the crowd gathered for the Thomas announcement. "Psychiatrics have withdrawn their services there to draw attention to the exceptionally poor conditions under which the staff work, and the conditions in which mental-health patients - patients with serious mental illness - are treated. "It is gratifying to have this initiative at this time from Mr. Thomas and his family, a time at which there is a need to have a quantum leap forward in the management and care of the mentally ill patients - a group which are traditionally maligned, ostracized and marginalized in our society."

The new unit will create a "safe, calm and compassionate environment" for patients, Barale said.

Marilyn Rook, vice-president of programs for the local health region, said she is continuing to discuss the situation at Royal Jubilee emergency with the three psychiatrists who withdrew their coverage during the weekday hours. On-call psychiatrists are available to fill the gap if needed, she said.

Last year, 3,000 people with mental-health problems were seen in Jubilee's emergency room.

The Thomas gift donated through the Greater Victoria Hospitals Foundation and its $17 million Together We Care campaign to equip the new Jubilee building and to fund other health-care needs throughout the capital region.

Campaign chairman Michael O'Connor said raising $1 million for mental health care was a preset goal.

"I think it's a significant that this is the first capital campaign that I'm aware of in this country where we have focused in on mental health. It is a very significant, important part of health care - one in five people in our city is affected by mental health."

He said the planned crisis-response unit "will serve as a model for mental health care in B.C."

The Together We Care campaign, which begins its public portion next spring, also aims to provide $10 million for equipment at the new Jubilee, $2 million for other equipment upgrades throughout the region, $2 million for seniors' care and $2 million for improvement to the maturity department at Victoria General Hospital.