Departure - April 10, 2010

The UK awaits Myra Piat, Sonia Cote, Catherine Briand and Janina Komaroff.

Douglas Mental Health Institute Researcher, Myra Piat, Douglas Senior Manager, Sonia Cote, Junior Researcher at l'Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine and Professor at the University of Montreal's School of Rehabilitation, Catherine Briand, and Douglas volunteer and person with lived experience, Janina Komaroff, are preparing to leave for the United Kingdom.

The foursome have planned a whirlwind trip, going to nine different mental health organizations in seven days, from April 10-21, 2010. The trip will serve as an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with British colleagues about principles, strategies, and methods to help those affected by mental illness achieve solid recoveries, and find adequate housing and employment.

The team will visit three "mental health care trusts" as they are called in the UK: the Devon Partnership NHS Trust; the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust; and the Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. These first two large service organizations have research centres attached, and the latter dispenses numerous services to England's county of Hertfordshire, one of the counties that make up the UK's overall population of 60 million.

Other local service organizations to be visited include The Haven Project, an innovative recovery centre in Colchester dedicated to helping those with a diagnosis of personality disorder, and Changing Minds, an organization targeting people with common mental disorders in Northampton. The team will also visit the user-based grassroots organization - Rethink, England's leading national mental health membership charity, and the policy think tank - The Sainsbury Centre, both located in London. Not to be missed, the team will visit centres of research excellence within the King's College Institute of Psychiatry.

There's lots going on, so stay tuned as the trip unwinds!

As you can see by our current photo, we first have to make it out of the airport!!