The DIAMENT Chair is the strategic research chair of UQAM (University of Quebec in Montreal) in design for cybermental health. It is led by Professor Stéphane Vial.
Mission and Vision
Established in January 2020, the DIAMENT Chair is hosted by the School of Design at the University of Quebec in Montreal and affiliated with the Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute. As the first French-language design research chair in Canada, the DIAMENT Chair falls within the broader field of social design and aligns with emerging research in responsible innovation in healthcare. It introduces a novel approach known as design for cyber-mental health. The mission of the Chair is to create, evaluate, study, and promote high-quality, ethical, and experiential cyber-mental health services through responsible, human centered design. Its goal is to humanize digital innovation in mental health.
Values
Creativity. Empathy. Rigor. Responsibility. Sobriety
Mentallys, the Flagship Project
Mentallys is a digital platform aimed at facilitating the experience of accessing mental healthcare. It consists of a mobile app for users and a web portal for professionals, with the ambition to become the digital one-stop gateway for accessing mental healthcare and self-care
in Quebec. Mentallys is a social and digital innovation based on an end-to-end co-design process. Since day one, Mentallys has been codesigned with patient partners, peer supporters, healthcare professionals, designers, researchers, and students. Mentallys takes shape through co-design, prototyping, and real-world testing phases, following an infinite iterative loop of continuous improvement.
Stéphane Vial, the Chairholder
Dr. Stéphane Vial, a philosopher and clinical psychology graduate, is a professor and design researcher specializing in responsible digital innovation in mental health through co-design and interaction design. As the creator and leader of the Mentallys platform, Stéphane Vial holds the DIAMENT Chair in design for cyber-mental health and is a regular researcher at the Research Center of the Montreal Mental Health University Institute. Since 2019, he has been an associate professor at the School of Design at the University of Quebec in Montreal, where he teaches design theory and interaction design.
