Myra Piat
PhD

Division: 
Mental Health and Society

Myra Piat
 
myra.piat@douglas.mcgill.ca

Office: 
E-3409, Perry Pavilion

6875 Boulevard LaSalle
Montréal, QC
H4H 1R3


(514) 761-6131 x2521

Fax: 
(514) 888-4084

Twitter: 
@MyraPiat

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Researcher, Douglas Research Centre
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, McGill University


Mental health recovery, housing, homelessness for people with psychiatric disabilities, and knowledge translation


Myra Piat’s research program aims at furthering our knowledge on the development of best practices around mental health recovery, housing, homelessness for people with psychiatric disabilities and knowledge translation.

She is currently working on the following research projects:

  1. For the past three years, she has co-led the Qualitative National Team of the At Home/Chez Soi project. This is a Canada-wide randomized controlled trial comparing the Housing First approach with treatments usually given to homeless individuals with mental illness and substance abuse disorders.
     
  2. She is developing and evaluating a user-friendly tool kit on Housing First to facilitate knowledge transfer with Canadian and international stakeholders. 
     
  3. She is developing and implementing a province-wide knowledge translation program on Eating Disorders for primary care service providers in local CSSSs.
     
  4. She is participating in a knowledge translation project on mental health recovery and the development of a community of practice on recovery in Quebec and in Canada.
     
  5. She is evaluating a community peer support program.
     
  6. She is contributing to a Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) study on how social businesses influence the stigma of mental illness.
     
  7. She is developing participatory research in Belize on the implementation of recovery-oriented and peer support services. 

Aubry, T., Ornelas, J., PIAT, M. & Bradshaw, C. (2014). Investigating the Implementation and Effectiveness of HF as Strategy to Ending Chronic Urban Homelessness in Canada and Portugal, International Colloquium « Intra-Urban Dynamics and Health », Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Paris, September 2013.

Piat, M., Boyer, R., Fleury, M. J., Lesage, A., O'Connell, M., & Sabetti, J. (2015). Resident and proprietor perspectives on a recovery orientation in community-based housing. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 38(1), 88-95.

PIAT M., Polvere, L., Kirst, M., Voronka, J., Zabkiewicz, D., Plante, M.-C., Isaak, C., Nolin , D., Nelson, G., Goering, G. (2014). Pathways into Homelessness: Understanding How Both Individual and Structural Factors Contribute to and Sustain Homelessness. Urban Studies, 1-17. http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/09/09/0042098014548138 doi:10.1177/0042098014548138.

PIAT, M, & Polvere, L. (2014). Recovery-oriented Mental Health Policies: Implications for Transformative Change in Five Nations. In G. Nelson, Kloos, B., Ornelas, J. (Eds), Community Psychology and Community Mental Health: Towards Transformative Change (pp. 432). New York, NJ: Oxford University Press.

PIAT, M. & Lal, S. (2012). Service Providers' Experiences and Perspectives on Recovery-Oriented Mental Health System Reform. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 35(4) 289-296.

PIAT, M., & Sabetti, J. (2012). Recovery in Canada: Toward Social Equality. International Review of Psychiatry, 24(1) 19-28.

PIAT, M., Boyer, R., Cloutier, S., Fleury, M. J., & Lesage, A. (2012). Les conditions d'hébergement favorables au rétablissement : perspective des usagers et usagères. Revue canadienne de santé mentale communautaire, 31(1), 67-85.

PIAT, M., Sabetti, J., Fleury, M. J., Boyer, R., & Lesage, A. (2011). "Who believes most in me and in my recovery": the importance of families for persons with serious mental illness living in structured community housing. Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, 10(1), 49-65.

PIAT, M., Sabetti, J., & Bloom, D. (2010). The transformation of mental health services to a recovery-orientated system of care: Canadian decision maker perspectives. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 56(2), 168-177.

PIAT, M., & Sabetti, J. (2009). The development of a recovery-oriented mental health system in Canada: What the experience of Commonwealth countries tells us. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health, 28 (2), 17-33.

PIAT, M., Sabetti J., Couture, A., Provencher, H., Sylvestre, J. & Botschner, R, J. (2009). What does recovery mean for me? : Perspectives of Canadian mental health consumers. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 32 (3), 199-207.

PIAT, M., Boyer, R., Lesage, A., Dorvil, H., Couture, A. & Bloom, D. (2008). Housing for persons with serious mental illness: Consumer and service provider preferences. Psychiatric Services, 59 (9), 1011-1017.

PIAT, M., Lesage, A., Dorvil, H., Boyer, R., Couture, A. & Bloom, D. (2008). Les préférences résidentielles des personnes souffrant de troubles mentaux graves: une étude descriptive. Santé Mentale au Québec, 33 (2), 247-269.


Myra Piat, PhD, has been working with the Psychosocial Research Division of the Douglas Institute since 1997. Her work focuses on the interface between:

- mental health services (housing, peer support, recovery) 
- mental health policy 
- and the perspectives of the key stakeholders. 

Most recently she has been working on knowledge translation processes involving clinicians, community mental health service providers at local Community Health and Social Service Centres (CSSS).

As Assistant Professor at McGill Department of Psychiatry, she teaches a course on mental health services and policy. She also has a cross appointment in the McGill School of Social Work.


2008 Merit Grant, EJLB Foundation ($25,000).
2004 Awarded Best Abstract, European Network for Mental Health Service Evaluation Conference London, England.


Research Assistants:
Éloïse Bates
Alexis Pearson
Judith Sabetti
Eleni Sofouli
Jessica Spagnolo
Administrative Assistant:
Louise Bénard


Recent publications