Senior researcher Johan Barstad of the Patient Education Research Center in Moere Og Romsdal, Norway, will visit the Wichita State University Center for Community Support and Research (CCSR) on Thursday and Friday, June 24-25.

Barstad plans to meet with CCSR to discuss previous methods of research, methods of assisting self-help groups and how to integrate these groups into professional services.

He will get together with CCSR Director Scott Wituk, the CCSR Research & Evaluation Team and the CCSR Mental Health Consumer Initiatives Team.

Additionally, Barstad will meet with three Kansas self-help organizations: Project Independence, Good Grief of Kansas and Victory in the Valley.

Barstad is in the process of setting up a self-help research network across Norway and other parts of Europe and is visiting the United States, where he will help in the presentation “Constructing Communication as Care in a Scandinavian Care Setting Tools, Talk and Tasks” at the University of Boston’s 2010 COMET Conference on Communication, Medicine and Ethics.