Michael Rowe, PhD

Much of my research and writing over the past 20 years concerns “citizenship” as an applied theoretical framework for the social inclusion and participation of people with mental illnesses. Citizenship, in my and my colleagues’ work, is defined as a person's strong connection to the 5 Rs of rights, responsibilities, roles, resources, and relationships that society offers its recognized members, along with a sense of belonging that is validated by others. This research is organized under the Citizens Community Collaborative (CCC) at the Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) of the Department of Psychiatry and Connecticut Mental Health Center. Study/intervention components with DMHAS funding include the Citizens Project, a 6-month intervention for people with mental illness and previous incarcerations; community-connection work including Project Connect and F.A.C.E.; financial health and empowerment supports; measurement, clinical tools, and manual development; and a statewide learning collaborative to take citizenship to scale in Connecticut. Among other funders are NIMH and the Melville Charitable Trust.

Related to this work is my past and continuing writing and research on homelessness and mental health outreach and peer-informed interventions for people with mental illnesses. I also write and have conducted research in the areas of narrative medicine, patient-doctor relationships, high-technology medicine, and medical errors. I am also conducting research on interventions to support “motive control” for people with strong revenge feelings against those who have wronged them.

I am Director of the CCC, Chair of the International Recovery and Citizenship Collaborative (IRCC), Co-Director of the Collaborative for Motive Control Studies, and Editor of The Perch, a Yale literary, visual arts, and music journal.