According to the National Institute of Mental Health, over 30 million office visits per year to physicians in North America are for psychiatric disorders. While many of these patients can be treated by their primary physician, others require out-patient services, or short- or long-term care at a psychiatric hospital or a psychiatric department of a general hospital. In the past, mental health services have been evaluated from the perspective of the caregiver. Today, there is growing interest in the patient's perspective of, and satisfaction with, these services.

Michel Perreault, PhD, has been working with the Psychosocial Research Division of the Douglas Institute since 1995, conducting research to evaluate, with a view to improving, services and treatments in psychiatry. He is a member of the Groupe de Recherche et Intervention sur les Substances Psychoactives-Québec (RISQ). His main focus is the evaluation of psychiatric and substance abuse programs.

To this end, Michel Perreault and his team develop new methods and tools, which are designed to assess the situation from the patients’ and their families’ point of view. Michel Perreault is also involved in evaluative research concerning the clinical management of schizophrenia and anxiety disorders, and in the assessment of different substance abuse treatments, such as methadone treatment for marginalized people and the treatments offered to those patients with a dual diagnosis (substance abuse and psychiatric disorders).