Community Psychology and Community Mental Health

Geoffrey Nelson, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and a faculty member in the graduate program in Community Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario. His research and practice has focused on community mental health programs and supports for people with serious mental illness and community-based prevention programs for children and families. In 2013 he received the award for Distinguished Contributions to Theory and Research in Community Psychology from the Society for Community Research and Action, Division 27 of the American Psychological Association. Bret Kloos is an Associate Professor of Psychology in the University of South Carolina's Clinical-Community Psychology doctoral training program. Along with students and community partners, his work has focused on housing issues for persons with psychiatric disabilities, social inclusion, promoting mutual help, and fostering community development that create structures that sustain people's well-being and that allow for liberation from oppressive conditions. He is President-elect of the Society for Community Research and Action. José Ornelas, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the ISPA - InstitutoUniversitário, in Lisboa, Portugal. At ISPA-IU, he is the Director of the Community Development undergraduate program and Community Psychology Masters and Doctoral programs. Over the last 25 years he has developed research and practice in the field of Community Psychology, particularly in the domains of community mental health. He was the first President of the European Association of Community Psychology and was the 2011 recipient of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation Social Award for his work in developing AEIPS, a community mental health organization in Lisboa that he founded in 1987.