Jean Caron, PhD, studies the mental health of populations, focusing primarily on:

• the epidemiology of mental disorders and suicide
• the assessment of mental health services
• the validation of psychometric instruments

His initial collaboration with the Douglas Mental Health University Institute was in 1993 when he was a professor in the Department of Human and Social Developmentat the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. He joined the Psychosocial Research Division in 1998 and subsequently became an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University. He currently leads the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Team in Social and Psychiatric Epidemiology. He is also an associate researcher at the Institut de Santé publique of the Université de Montréal and the Instituto de Saude Colletiva of the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil.

His recent studies have identified determinants of psychological distress and quality of life among different populations: the general population, low-income populations and populations with mental health problems. He has focused particularly on social support as a protective factor in mental health.

Jean Caron’s research has received national and international recognition. He was a visiting scientist at the Mental Health Institute of the Andalusian Ministry of Health and avisiting professor in the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Seville, in Spain. He is a consultant in social and psychiatric epidemiology to the Public Health Agency of Canada, Statistics Canada, the Quebec Department of Public Health, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.