DONNA T. DOWNING MS, OTR/L received her undergraduate and graduate degrees in Occupational Therapy from the University of New Hampshire, where she taught as an adjunct and then as a full-time faculty member in the Occupational Therapy Department from 2010-2013. She has worked in all aspects of mental health care – inpatient psychiatric acute care unit, partial hospitalization program, community-based programs and research.
Ms. Downing has been actively involved in Multifamily Psychoeducation for 25 years as a practitioner, supervisor, trainer and researcher. She assisted Dr. William McFarlane with a statewide multifamily group initiative in Maine from 1999-2000, while also assisting with a Michigan statewide family psychoeducation initiative for several years. She was Team Leader of the PIER Program from 2000-2007, and then Director of Training for the multi-site national initiative Early Detection, Intervention, and Prevention of Psychosis Project (EDIPPP) funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From 2013-2016, Ms. Downing was the research coordinator for the Maine site for the Mental Health Attitudes of Youth (MAY) research study, led by Dr. Lawrence Yang. The MAY Study investigated the attitudes of youth at risk of psychosis toward their experiences and the role of stigma in their lives. She is semi-retired, but continues to train and supervise practitioners in multifamily group and supported education and employment throughout the country.
