Associate Professor Evelyn van Weel-Baumgarten is from the Department of General Practice at the University Medical Centre Nijmegen, Holland. She is a leader in the field of teaching general practitioners and other primary health care professionals’ problem solving skills. On December 3rd 2007 Associate Professor Evelyn van Weel-Baumgarten presented an overview of the latest research in this area and facilitated an interactive workshop.

Professor Tony Kendrick is a practicing general practitioner and Professor of Primary Medical Care at the University of Southampton School of Medicine, UK. His research addresses the management of common and costly mental health problems in primary care, through multi-practice randomised controlled trials of new treatments and service developments, as well as observational and qualitative studies. Professor Kendrick has published extensively and in particular on his research on the primary care of depression, schizophrenia and eating disorders. Professor Kendrick’s work has been influential in the development of good practice guidelines and the new quality indicators in the UK general practice contract for the management of long term mental illness and depression. The diamond consortium hosted Professor Kendrick for two weeks in Nov-Dec of 2007. During his visit he presented two seminars; ‘The rise of antidepressant prescribing’ and ‘GP Contract: Quality and Outcomes Framework in the UK’. Professor Kendrick also met with various research groups connected with the diamond Consortium at the Department of General Practice, the University of Melbourne.

Professor David Pilgrim is a clinical psychologist and the Clinical Dean of the Teaching Primary Care Trust Team for East Lancashire, UK. Professor Pilgrim has authored many books in the area of mental health and psychology. He was awarded the 2006 BMA, Medical Book of the Year award for ‘A Sociology of Mental Health and Illness (2005)’ which he co-authored with Professor Anne Rogers.  The diamond Consortium hosted Professor David Pilgrim on Friday 20th of July in which he presented a seminar titled ‘The survival of psychiatric diagnoses’ at the Department of General Practice, the University of Melbourne. Professor Pilgrim also met with many consortium members who attended the event.

Professor Anne Rogers is a medical sociologist who leads a research program on self management for long term conditions in the National Primary Care and Development Centre, the University of Manchester. Her research interests include sociology of mental health & chronic illness and self management. Her methodological interests are in the use of nested qualitative studies combined with Randomised Controlled Trials of Complex Interventions. She has co-authored a book with Professor David Pilgrim entitled ‘A Sociology of Mental Health and Illness’. The diamond Consortium hosted Professor Anne Rogers on Friday the 20th of July in which she presented a seminar titled ‘Self care and self management’ at the Department of General Practice, the University of Melbourne. She also met with various consortium members.

The diamond Consortium hosted Dr Jean Grenier & Dr Marie- Helene Chomienne from the University of Ottawa at the Department of General Practice, the University of Melbourne on the 28th of March 2007. Dr Jean Grenier is a practicing psychologist and professor in the School of Psychology and is the director of the clinical psychology service and director of training and residency in psychology at Montfort Hospital. He offers psychological services in the hospital environment and private practice and is actively engaged in interdisciplinary research projects. Dr Marie-Helene Chomiene is a family physician and is assistant professor at the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa.  Dr Grenier and Dr Chomiene presented a seminar held at the Department of General Practice titled ‘Integration of Psychologists in Family Medicine Clinics: A Canadian Pilot Study’

The diamond Consortium and PEP Collaboration hosted visiting academic, Dr. Dan Chisholm from 4-20 April 2005. Dr Dan Chisholm was based at the Department of General Practice, the University of Melbourne. Dan Chisholm, Ph.D., is a mental health economist currently working in the Department of Health System Financing, Expenditure and Resource Allocation and also the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, WHO Geneva. Initially trained as an anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh, he made his way into health economics via the MSc programme at the University of York, before becoming a founder staff member and senior lecturer at the Centre for the Economics of Mental Health at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. His work, both there and now at WHO, is focused on analysis of the costs and cost-effectiveness of strategies for reducing the global burden of mental disorders and addiction, and its contribution to broader priority-setting agendas at the national level. During his stay, Dr. Dan Chisholm provided international expertise on economic analysis of mental health care research for the diamond Consortium. Details of workshops and seminars given by Dr Chisholm are described in the sections on workshops and seminars.

The diamond Consortium hosted visiting academic Professor Christopher Dowrick from 14-25 February 2005. Christopher Dowrick is Professor of Primary Medical Care in the University of Liverpool, UK, and a general practitioner with the Aintree Park Group Practice. His research interests are in mental health, particularly depression and medically unexplained symptoms in primary care and community settings. He is member of the UK Department of Health's Mental Health Task Force, and editor of the journal 'Chronic Illness'. In his most recent book 'Beyond Depression' (OUP, 2004) he provides a radical critique of current medical approaches to understanding and managing depression, and proposes alternative perspectives drawn from philosophical, historical and literary sources. During his stay, Professor Dowrick was based at the Department of General Practice, the University of Melbourne and conducted three seminars and officially launched the diamond study.