Pierre Lalonde

Childhood

Pierre Lalonde’s parents, who were building material distributors, saw his remarkable success in primary school, and raised the necessary funds for him to attend Collège Bourget de Rigaud from 1953 to 1962.

Education

Pierre Lalonde studied medicine at the Université de Montréal (1963-1968), then completed his psychiatric training in various French and English-speaking hospitals in Montreal until 1973.

Career

After completing his education, in 1973 Pierre Lalonde joined a team of emerging community psychiatrists at the Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu (now the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Montréal or IUSMM), in the Mercier-Est neighbourhood. From the beginning of his career, he was interested in three aspects of psychiatry: care, teaching and research. In 1975, he also worked at the Institut Albert-Prévost (I.A.-P.), in the Pont-Viau neighbourhood.

He left I.A.-P. in 1978, along with psychiatrist Michel Messier, to create the Psychiatry Department of the new Cité de la santé hospital in Laval. They applied the bio-psycho-social approach, which was gaining ground in psychiatry and medicine and provides a better understanding of normal and pathological human behaviour. As a result, it facilitates the diagnosis and treatment of people suffering from mental health disorders. This approach includes sharing information with families to help them better understand and intervene with a family member suffering from psychosis.

In the past, passing on information to the family and the patient was avoided, because of the fear that it would traumatize them and make them feel hopeless. But the benefits of this psychoeducation are now recognized; families feel better supported.

In 1983, Dr. Frédéric Grunberg, newly appointed head of teaching at the Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine (HLHL), formerly the Hôpital Saint-Jean-de-Dieu, insisted that Lalonde return, after they had co-authored the publication of the first Quebec psychiatry textbook: Psychiatrie clinique : approche contemporaine (1980).

This unique French-language publication harmonized North American and European psychiatry. In fact, it is a comprehensive overview of contemporary psychiatry. The textbook is easy to read and makes psychiatry understandable and interesting for psychiatrists, physicians, health professionals, students and even the general public, who can find accessible and practical information. Four editions have been published (1980, 1988, 1999, 2016), thanks to the collaboration of hundreds of psychiatrists, clinicians and researchers. It is considered to be the bible of Quebec psychiatry.

From 1980 to 1989, Lalonde was the Director of the Formation médicale continue at the Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (AMPQ) and he organized several teaching conventions and activities to ensure the continued competence of Quebec psychiatrists.

From 1989 to 1997, he directed the specialized psychiatry program at the Université de Montréal to plan the training of resident physicians who wanted to become psychiatrists.

In 2014, Lalonde was name Professor Emeritus the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Medicine.

Clinique Jeunes Adultes

Inspired by the first-episode psychosis clinics in Australia, the U.S. and England, Pierre Lalonde founded HLHL’s Clinique Jeunes Adultes for youth with schizophrenia. At the time, it was the first clinic in the world to provide French-language care and rehabilitation to young people in the early stages of schizophrenia, as well as offer support and information for their families. By sharing his methods and experience, Lalonde inspired the creation of some thirty Programmes d’intervention précoce en premiers épisodes psychotiques (also known as PIPÉP or Early Intervention Programs for First Psychotic Episodes) throughout Quebec.

Lalonde is regularly invited to clinical settings in French-speaking Europe and North Africa to share his methods and experience in early detection and intervention for schizophrenia in its early stages.

Popularizing Science

Since the start of his career, Pierre Lalonde has given numerous lectures and interviews on radio and television, demystifying mental illness and making reliable information about schizophrenia accessible to a wide audience. To raise public awareness of schizophrenia, he has acted as a consulting psychiatrist for several works including: Janette Bertrand's drama L'amour, c'est pas assez; filmmaker Laurette Deschamps' film L'Abîme du rêve; Mariloup Wolfe's television series Mon fils; and Tom Griffin's play Les gars d'à côté.

Honours and Awards

• Achievement of the Year, Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (1990)
• NAMI Exemplary Psychiatrist Award, National Alliance on Mental Illness (1996)
• Academic Excellence Award, Department of Psychiatry of the Université de Montréal (1996)
• Innovation Award, Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (2000)
• Clinical Work Award, Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (2000)
• Prix spécial from the ministre de l’Éducation du Québec (2003)
• Outstanding Achievement Award, Société canadienne de schizophrénie (2005)
• Camille-Laurin Award, Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (2010)
• Heinz Lehmann Award of Excellence, Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (2011)
• Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine of the Université de Montréal (2014)
• Camille-Laurin Award, Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec (2017)
• Excellence Award, Collège des médecins du Québec (2019)