Myra Piat

Biography

As well as having earned a doctorate in social work from the Université Laval in 1997, Dr. Piat has over 20 years of experience in social services in the public and community sectors, both as a practitioner and as an administrator. Her research focuses on two major areas: housing for persons with serious mental illness and recovery from serious mental illness. Research in the area of housing includes studies on consumer housing preferences, client satisfaction, and the role of non-professional caregivers. Current research on recovery includes studies of the meaning of recovery for different stakeholders across Canada, the role of housing in recovery, and peer support. She has also been instrumental in developing a partnership with the Yale University Program on Recovery and Community Health. She is currently leading a Montreal-wide effort to implement a recovery centre for mental health providers. A consumer’s website, www.crrg-gcrr.ca, was created to broadcast information on mental health recovery and ongoing research on recovery. Her priority is to develop research that is pertinent and that will ultimately help improve services for this vulnerable population. Dr. Piat’s research program aims at furthering knowledge regarding: • our understanding of recovery and how it is being implemented in services; • current and future housing for persons with psychiatric disabilities; • the consumer’s point of view on services, specifically on housing and employment; • new and innovative peer support programs; • homelessness and mental illness.           

Research Interest

Recovery, mental health, consumer perspective, participatory research, housing, peer support, caregivers, qualitative methodology, evaluation services, homelessness and mental illness