Pat's Brief Bio
Patricia E. Deegan Ph.D. is an independent consultant who specializes in researching and lecturing on the topic of recovery and the empowerment of people diagnosed with mental illness. She is the creator of CommonGround, a web application to support shared decision making in the psychopharmacology consultation. It was voted as a finalist in an international competition for Patient Empowerment by the Ashoka Changemakers Foundation and was recognized by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as a practice innovation. Pat is an activist in the disability rights movement and has lived her own journey of recovery after being diagnosed with schizophrenia as a teenager. She is an Adjunct Professor at Dartmouth College School of Medicine and at Boston University, Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. (Conference organizers: download brief bio and/or biz photo of Pat)
Recovery and the Conspiracy of Hope
In 1987, I wrote a paper about my experience of recovery after being diagnosed with schizophrenia. That paper has defined the major themes of my life's work. Using the tiny sea rose as a metaphor for the journey of recovery, I wrote:
It is springtime and hope is everywhere...
