Acknowledgments
Research leading to the creation of this book was funded by Alberta Health Services and Alberta Human Services as part of the Collaborative Research Grant Initiative: Mental Wellness in Seniors and Persons with Disabilities and by the Athabasca University Academic Research Fund. We are grateful to these funders and to the dually diagnosed individuals and their caregivers who participated in our study. Our research participants asked for a resource that summarizes essential background information and key points. Thank you for your encouragement as we extended the original project.
Throughout our process of writing this book, individuals from the fields of nursing, psychiatric nursing, disability studies, counselling, developmental service work, and behavioural analysis graciously donated their time to review drafts and offer suggestions. We express our sincere thanks to the following individuals: Gail Ancill, Deputy Registrar, College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of British Columbia, Port Moody, British Columbia; Tracey Eklund and Robert Lockhart, Faculty, Psychiatric Nursing, Grant MacEwan University, Ponoka Campus, Ponoka Alberta; Karen Heslop, Chair, Disability Studies Leadership and Community, Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta; Barbara Lowe, Executive Director, College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta; Terry Lowey, Program Coordinator, Developmental Services Worker Program, Confederation College, Thunder Bay, Ontario; Dr. Yona Lunsky, Clinician Scientist, Dual Diagnosis Services, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario; Dr. Deena Martin, Director of Alberta Counselling Programs, City University of Seattle, Edmonton, Alberta; Colleen Orrick, Developmental Services Worker Program, Loyalist College, Belleville, Ontario; Carol Prechotko, Counselling and Student Disability Services, Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology, Sudbury, Ontario; Chris Thomson, Director, Excel Academy, Edmonton, Alberta; and Dr. Jason Vladescu, Center for Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis, Caldwell University, Caldwell, New Jersey. Without your insight, wisdom, and support, this book might not have been possible.
We also thank Dr. Cathy McPhalen of thINK Editing for uniting our authoring voices, Dr Sharon Moore for an inspiring cover photograph, Rick Roder for recording the audio files, Steve Swettenham for creative technical design, and Clint Lalonde at BCcampus.