Aiysha Malik
Aiysha is a PhD student in Psychiatry at the University of Oxford. Aiysha interned at the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, World Health Organization and is currently the 2012 British Psychological Society Postgraduate Fellow at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Her interests are in providing an evidence-base for psychological interventions in low resourced environments, in conflict and post-conflict areas and for refugees; the development of accessible and quality mental health services globally, in particular: Kashmir, India; and fostering the participation of clinical psychologists in making mental health a global agenda.
Laurent Benedetti
Laurent is a Preventive Medicine Fellow at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, where he also received his medical training and masters in public health. His interest in international health and policy have inspired his work with the National Health Service in England, relief work at health posts in Nepal and policy evaluation with the French Ministry of Agriculture. He presently works with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization in Geneva. He has interests in maternal depression and child neurodevelopment, mobile platform technology in mental health and medical system development and structure.
Sarah Skeen
Sarah is a technical officer at WHO. While completing her Masters in International Public Health at the University of Sydney she developed a strong interest in global mental health. Subsequently she worked at the University of Cape Town on the Mental Health and Poverty Project, a multi-year study of mental health legislation, policy and services in four African countries. She originally trained as a speech and language therapist during which time she became involved in disability issues. Her interests are in child and adolescent mental health, human rights, and advocating for mental health to become a health and development priority.
Kanna Sugiura
Kanna is a technical officer at WHO as a JPO ( Junior Professional Officer).
While Kanna was working as a psychiatrist in Japan she became interested in health systems and quality assurance (reforming mental health services). She also came to know that there are 40 countries in the world without psychiatrists and the challenges to service delivery and scaling up mental health services that exist in these settings. Those interests led her towards global mental health and she received an MSc Public Health degree from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Currently she is a candidate for International Diploma in Mental Health Law and Human Rights. Her interests are service delivery, quality assurance and human rights. Through this blog she would like to reflect on how we can bring the fragmented global mental health community together and how we can put mental health on the global agenda.
