Marc Laporta, MD, Psychiatrist and Assistant Director of the Montreal WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre at the Douglas Institute, has been mandated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to do a mental health reconnaissance mission in Haiti.

He left Montreal for Port-au-Prince on Friday January 29 and joined Dr. Devora Kestel, a psychologist who works as a subregional advisor for the WHO/PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) in Barbados. Together they will directly assess mental health needs in Haiti and develop an action plan to address these needs.

They will leave Haiti on February 5 for the PAHO's Washington offices, where they will report back on their work. “We will draft a list of the most urgent mental health care initiatives that need to be implemented as well as those that are most easily attainable both now and over the long term,” explained Dr. Laporta.

For a number of years, Marc Laporta has participated in emergency and disaster efforts overseen by the PAHO around the world. For example, he helped set up training to deal with the psychosocial hardships created by the 2004 tsunami in Aceh, Indonesia. He has also developed international collaboration projects with such countries as Belize and Dominica.