An agreement between Yale University’s Program for Recovery and Community Health, the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and McGill University will be signed on October 30. This collaboration will involve the sharing of expertise, knowledge, resources and funding strategies for a period of five years.

“Yale’s Program for Recovery and Community Health is world renowned and we look forward to working with them. We are quite enthusiastic about this agreement, which will emphasize recovery, a critical component of care.” says Rémi Quirion, PhD, Scientific Director of the Douglas. “This international collaboration is the third such agreement for the Douglas in the last year, and demonstrates our strengths and commitment to excellence.”

An international leader, the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health is an interdisciplinary program of the Department of Psychiatry and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies of Yale University, in Connecticut. The agreement includes:

• Developing an exchange program for staff, doctoral or postdoctoral students, between the two institutions;
• Promoting international research experience and training for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows within each others institutions;
• Developing a yearly exchange program for users of service, consumers or families so that the knowledge exchange takes place at both sites;
• Making joint applications to international funding agencies in areas of mutual scientific interest;
• Developing linkages in the areas of clinical staff training around recovery.

“The signing of this agreement formalizes a collaboration that had already began and will now continue to develop and expand.” says Myra Piat,PhD, the lead investigator for the Douglas . “The underlying assumption of recovery is that people with serious psychiatric illness can successfully contend with their illness, perform significant roles in society, and create positive lives despite the ongoing presence of disability or symptoms. Although recovery is an individual process and unique journey, mental health services play a crucial role in facilitating and supporting people in the recovery process. Understanding how this can be achieved is the goal of this new collaboration.” Larry Davidson, PhD, director of the Program for Recovery and Community Health, at Yale will coordinate efforts for Yale.

The official signature of this agreement will be held on October 30 at 10 a.m. at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. It will be followed by a lecture from Larry Davidson, renowned as a dynamic speaker, entitled "Why Psychiatry Needs Recovery". The lecture is in English.