About the Author

About the Author 

BORN IN THE IDYLLIC MARITIMES IN 1946, ROGER NEILL LEFT HOME AT THE age of nineteen for British Columbia’s Lotusland and got swept up in the cultural, political, and economic revolution which defined the late 60s and early 70s. He has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Simon Fraser University. This was followed by twenty years of psychiatric social work in various capacities with the Greater Vancouver Mental Health Service. During his career, Neill published articles in mental health journals and presented workshops throughout the mental health system, community colleges, and the University of British Columbia. He also participated in presentations at the Canadian Psychiatric Association in Ottawa, as well as at an international congress on psychiatric rehabilitation in Orebro, Sweden. 

This foundational training and experience prepared him for seven years with the Mennonite Central Committee in Jamaica, working with first the homeless in Montego Bay, and then the incarcerated mentally ill in the infamous prisons of Kingston and Spanish Town. An international story grew out of this episode. A coordinated partnership saw the release of a seventy-year-old man who had been incarcerated twenty-nine years for breaking a window while he was psychotic. Neill wrote multiple newspaper articles for the Jamaican press and appeared on radio and television talk shows. 

His return to B.C. in 2003 brought him back to community psychiatry for six years with Fraser Health Authority. From 2007, he began serving with the Sar-El, a uniformed volunteer unit of the Israel Defense Force. His last placement was at an IDF post along the Lebanese border while President Ahmadinejad of Iran was in Beirut. 

Retired now and living in Mission, B.C., Neill writes a blog on international affairs as they relate to the nation of Israel and the Christian Church (www. donningtheyellowstar.wordpress.com). His recreational passions centre around canoes, kayaks, wilderness travel, motorcycles, and guitar.