A voice for the patients: Evaluation of the implementation of a strategic organizational committee for patient engagement in mental health.

Objective: There is a need for structure to achieve functional patient engagement within mental healthcare organizations, and for clarification on how to proceed on a strategic level. The aim of this paper is to shed light on the implementation of a strategic organizational structure for patient engagement in mental health by examining why and how to implement a structure, the organizational and environmental factors that facilitate or limit the process, and the perceived consequences of the implementation.

Method: This paper evaluates the implementation of a strategic committee for patient engagement in a mental healthcare organization in Montreal (Quebec, Canada).

[Evaluation of a citizenship-oriented intervention: The Citizens' Project of the University of Recovery].

Objectives The Global Model of Public Mental Health is "global" not only in the sense of having an international perspective, but in regarding service users as actors at all levels of public mental health exerting collective and organized influence on the social determinants of health, in addition to being recipients of care. Having access to appropriate health and mental health care when needed is a fundamental human right. Having a say over the manner in which care is provided, including partnership in decision making in care planning and ongoing care, has gained increasing support among recipients and providers of care.

[On the University of Recovery].

Objectives Located at the heart of a mental health university institute in Montreal, Canada, the University of Recovery (UR) is a peer-run agency of service users who came together as a private non-profit organization to promote their experiential knowledge in science and public health, and to transform the academic milieu as an inclusive work environment conducive to recovery and full citizenship. UR students can thus have access to scientific conferences and classes on various topics and invite scientists or other professionals to further discuss new discoveries and techniques, and possible ways of improving healthcare from a patients' and service users' perspective. Our conversation with a scientist specialized in obsessive-compulsive disorders triggered this collective reflection on neuroimaging in terms of psychiatric diagnoses, prognoses, recovery opportunities and meta-cognition.

Discovery of Potent, Orally Bioavailable Inhibitors of Human Cytomegalovirus.

A high-throughput screen based on a viral replication assay was used to identify inhibitors of the human cytomegalovirus. Using this approach, hit compound 1 was identified as a 4 μM inhibitor of HCMV that was specific and selective over other herpes viruses. Time of addition studies indicated compound 1 exerted its antiviral effect early in the viral life cycle.

[For us, being full citizens means…].

Objective: One of the four main chapters of the consultation document proposed by the Québec Ministère de la santé et des services sociaux (Health and Social Services), in preparation for the National Forum on the Mental Health Action Plan 2014-2020, is dedicated to the full exercise of citizenship. This paper reports the dialogue that took place between the CEO of a university mental health institute and a group of service users, in order to participate in the consultation process regarding the full exercise of citizenship.

Method: Since May 2013, a dozen service users have gathered in the Projet citoyen at the Research Centre of Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal (IUSMM).