Faculty
Alberto Minoletti
Alberto Minoletti is MD, psychiatrist, Chief of the Mental Health Unit at the School of Public Health, University of Chile. He is Professor of Mental Health Policy and Services and Director of the Master in Mental Health and Community Psychiatry. He has participated in research projects oriented to evaluate community services for persons with mental disorders and/or disability and has also numerous publications in this field. Former Director of the Mental Health Department, Ministry of Health, Chile, where he played a major role in the national mental health policies, contributing to integrate mental health into primary care, to implement a network of community facilities to care for persons with severe mental disorders, to develop day hospitals and psychiatric units in general hospitals, and to downsize mental hospitals. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have invited him to be Consultant to write technical documents on mental health policies and services and to help other Latin American countries to develop and implement community mental health policies and services.
Caroline Kim
Caroline Kim has an M.Sc. and a B.Sc. from McGill University where she studied psychiatric genetics, and has published in a number of journals including the American Journal of Psychiatry. She holds her LL.B. in common law and B.C.L. in civil laws from McGill University where she continued to study mental health in the context of human rights and the law. She is a recipient of the Hans Hermann Oppenheimer Scholarship in International Law and was an editor of the McGill Law Journal. Her past experience in public health and law includes work on legal matters for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (Ontario). Caroline has diverse experience working in human rights and legal aid organizations both domestically and internationally. She was a litigation lawyer for the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, a unique clinic which provides both psycho-social and legal services to women survivors of domestic violence, and an international volunteer at the Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) Research and Educational Trust, in Malawi. She is currently employed at Miller Thomson LLP, a Canadian national law firm.
Charlene Sunkel
Ms Sunkel is a leading South African voice for the rights of people with mental health problems. She works for the South African Federation for Mental Health as Program Manager for Advocacy and Development where she manages the South African Mental Health Advocacy Movement. She authored several papers from a service user’s perspective. She has written and produced theatre plays and a short feature film on mental disorders – to raise public awareness. Ms Sunkel had been involved in the review and drafting of various policies and legislation in South Africa and provided technical assistance to international mental health related reports and documents. She serves on a number of national and international boards and committees, including: Editorial Advisory Board of the Lancet Psychiatry; Presidential Working Group on Disability; Ministerial Advisory Committee on Mental Health; Disability Empowerment Concerns Trust; Mental Health and Human Rights FGIP; Rural Mental Health Campaign; and amongst others. Ms Sunkel is also the Principal Coordinator for the Movement for Global Mental Health. Ms Sunkel was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1991 which led to her passion for mental health advocacy and human rights, where she received a number of awards for her work. RESEARCH INTERESTS Ms Sunkel’s research interests revolves around mental health care users’ perspectives on mental health service delivery and interventions, stigma and discrimination, empowerment of mental health care users, the implementation of relevant policies and legislation, human rights and relevant topics that directly impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of mental health care users. Much of her interests focus on the upscaling of mental health care and services globally and the move towards deinstitutionalization. Titles of her publications include: Empowerment and Partnership in Mental Health (The Lancet Series on Global Mental Health), Mental Health Services – Where do we go from here? (The Lancet Psychiatry), Shortage of Psychiatric Medications in South Africa (The Lancet Psychiatry), Empowerment and Collaboration in Mental Health (Journal of Pioneering Medical Science), A service user's perspective on Excess Mortality in Persons with Severe Mental Disorders (World Psychiatry). Ms Sunkel is currently involved in The Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health, both as an advisory group member and commissioner.
Christine Ogaranko
Christine Ogaranko is a Social Worker by training, having obtained a Master of Social Work degree in Manitoba, Canada. She has worked in government and non-government settings, and as a consultant in Canada and internationally in the areas of mental health policy and program development. Christine has worked as a Technical Officer with the WHO, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, and was the Principle Investigator of a Mental Health Commission of Canada sponsored project to evaluate Canadian mental health law and policy with a human rights lens. Currently, Christine is a Program Officer with the Open Society Foundations Public Health Program, Mental Health Initiative, and is an alumnus of the ILS International Diploma in Mental Health, Human Rights and Law.
Dovilė Juodkaitė
Dovilė Juodkaitė is a lawyer. She graduated from the Law Faculty of Vilnius University in 1998, and further on continued her professional training as a scholar at the Columbia University School of Law (2001-2002), in the Public Interest Law Initiative program, focusing on mental health law and human rights of people with mental disabilities. Later D. Juodkaite participated in an Open Society institute Centre for Policy studies, International Policy fellowship program (2004-2005) and under the Public Health, Mental disability Advocacy Program (MDAP) completed the research on the topic “Lithuanian Mental Health Policy: shifting from deinstitutionalization towards community integration”. In 2010-2011-year D. Juodkaite have completed and received International Diploma in Mental Health Law and Human Rights, organized by Indian Law Society in collaboration with World Health Organisation. Since 2002 D. Juodkaite is actively working in Lithuanian NGO sector, focusing on human rights and disability. During this period as a lawyer and expert, she was involved in various international and national projects related to such areas as: human rights and disability, discrimination on the grounds of disability, mental health care, policy and law, guardianship issues and overall social integration of people with mental health problems and intellectual disabilities. Throughout her work she was involved in promoting CRPD, OPCAT and other international documents enhancing rights of persons with disabilities in Lithuania. She actively participated in development and reforming of national legislation, related to social and health care systems for persons with disabilities, safeguarding their interests and right. Provided trainings, gave lectures and consultancy on the issues of rights of persons with disabilities. In 2006-2012 years D. Juodkaite took a position of the director of NGO "Global initiative on psychiatry", Vilnius office. Since June 2013 she became the president of Lithuanian Disability Forum – umbrella organisation for disability NGOs in Lithuania. April 2013-December 2016 she was public consultant to Prime Minister of Lithuania on disability issues. Since August, 2016 she became Faculty member in International Master on Mental Health Policy and Service Organization, the Lisbon Institute of Global Mental Health. In 2017 she was an Expert on the National WHO QualityRights Assessment Team at World Health Organization for human rights monitoring in social and medical closed type institutions (social care homes, psychiatric hospitals, etc.) in Lithuania.
Dr Fahmy Hanna
Dr. Fahmy Hanna a qualified medical doctor and psychiatrist from Egypt, he received his postgraduate certificates and training in Egypt, UK, India, and Italy. Dr. Hanna has more than a decade of experience in mental health services and its development in low and middle-income settings. He most recently has served at the WHO office in Damascus /Syria as a Technical officer on mental health during the current crisis in the country. He previously worked at the WHO office in Libya from 2011 to 2014 as a mental health advisor providing technical support for designing and implementing a successful scale-up program for mental health and psychosocial services during the conflict and in the post-conflict phase. He also served at WHO EMRO office as the Technical officer on mental health and substance abuse during 2010-2011 with a focus in his work on the mental health of Displaced Iraqis in the region. Dr. Hanna, during his career, had visited and provided technical consultations for a wide range of programs on mental health and health of special groups with different donor agencies, Academic institutes, UN and NGOs in many countries including Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Iran, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Before this, he also served in several strategic positions at the Mental Health Department at Ministry of health in Egypt and supported the development and implementation of the national mental health information system and the national advocacy campaign for people with mental disabilities in Egypt.
Itzhak Levav
Itzhak Levav is currently professor of the Department of Community Mental Health, Haifa University, Haifa, Israel; Doctor Honoris Causa of the National University of Cordoba, Argentina; Honorary Professor of the University Cayetano Heredia, Peru; and member of the panel of experts on mental health, World Health Organization. He received honors from different organizations. Dr Levav was previously the Regional Advisor for Mental Health at PAHO/WHO. He has a vast experience in the Americas in the re-organisation of services and mental health policy and plan development. Dr Levav has alsonumerous research publications in the field of psychiatric epidemiology and social psychiatry. He edited seven books on mental health issues.
Michelle Funk
Michelle Funk has global responsibility for the work in mental health policy, planning, service development, human rights and legislation at the World Health Organization, Geneva. Through her work over the last 15 years, she has led the development of a normative framework and key tools in these areas. Dr Funk leads the WHO QualityRights initiative which engages with a growing network of stakeholders including mental health professionals, civil society groups, and government representatives in order to promote a human based approach in mental health through policy, service development and training initiatives in countries.
Mrinalini Ravi
Mrinalini has a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Women & Christian College Chennai and Master’s in Mental Health Services Research from King & College London. She has been with The Banyan and BALM since 2011. Her primary interests lie in urban homelessness and civil society responses towards the needs of homeless persons with or without mental health issues. She leads The Banyan’s Social Cooperatives and the Coalition for Homeless Persons with Mental Health Issues. Through these initiatives, she and her team are engaged in a range of diverse initiatives with an aim to reduce stigma associated with persons with mental issues and spaces that cater to them, to ultimately increase social mobility and social capital of her target constituency, Mrinalini also work closely with students, interns and volunteers, and mentor them through their coursework.
Natalie Drew
Natalie Drew is a Technical Officer with the Mental Health Policy and Service Development team at the World Health Organization. As part of her work she supports countries to reform national policies, plans and laws in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other international human rights standards. In addition, she oversees the WHO QualityRights Project, which, among other things, supports countries to assess and improve quality and human rights conditions in mental health services, and builds capacity among key national stakeholders to understand and promote the rights of people with psychosocial, cognitive and intellectual disabilities.
Oliver Lewis
Oliver Lewis is Executive Director of the Mental Disability Advocacy Center (www.mdac.info), an international human rights organization headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Oliver joined MDAC at its inception in 2002 as Legal Director and has been Executive Director since September 2006. Oliver has an LLB(Hons) in Laws from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), an MA in Medical Ethics and Law from King’s College, London, and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the Open University Business School. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management (FinstLM). He is a recurrent Visiting Professor at the Legal Studies Department, Central European University in Budapest where he teaches “Mental Disability Law and Advocacy” to postgraduate human rights students. Oliver is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and is an Associate Member of the human rights barristers’ set Doughty Street Chambers, London. He serves on the editorial board of the European Yearbook on European Disability Law and his publications address human rights, international law and disability.
Vandana Gopikumar
Dr. Vandana Gopikumar (with her friend and partner Vaishnavi Jayakumar) founded The Banyan in 1993, and The Banyan Academy of Leadership in Mental Health (BALM) in 2007. The Banyan’s goals include enabling access to mental health and social care for the most vulnerable through its critical time interventions across two psychiatric hospitals for homeless and poor persons, particularly women in distress, rehabilitative, employment and after care services, three inclusive living options for persons with long term needs, and outpatient clinical and social care services across 13 access points in 4 districts of Tamil Nadu. Embedded in a philosophy of promoting equity and social justice within the mental health landscape, it has serviced close to 10,000 persons living in low socio-economic contexts through its clinics and outreach and has provided in patient care to over 2000 persons. The Banyan and BALM study trends and patterns around structural barriers, discrimination, well-being, social mobility and capabilities across these diverse settings, and use research, advocacy and education as tools to influence policy and social change. Vandana herself was a member of the first Mental Health Policy Group constituted by the Government of India in 2012. Vandana now mentors a second line that leads both The Banyan and BALM, and operates on the board level across both organisations, mostly offering strategic direction and clinical inputs. Currently, she is engaged in developing and scaling up a few critical innovations including. The Home Again Approach & that explores community living arrangements for persons with moderate - severe disability. Originally initiated in Chennai and Kanchipuram districts, this approach is now being replicated in Trichy district in TN, Calicut and Mallapuram districts in Kerala, Boko and Guwahati districts in Assam and is likely to expand to Delhi, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rwanda in East Africa in 2017-18.
Dr. Rahul Shidhaye
Dr. Rahul Shidhaye is a Clinical Psychiatrist, having a keen interest in the field of public mental health and implementation science. His research work is mainly in the areas of social determinants of mental health, integration of mental health in primary care and mental health systems strengthening. He is Principal Investigator for NIMH funded ESSENCE (Enabling translation of Science to Service to Enhance Depression Care) project and country Principal Investigator for various Research Program Consortiums such as PRIME (Program for Improving Mental Health Care), EMERALD (Emerging Mental Health Systems in Low and Middle Income Countries) and SHARE (South Asian Hub for Advocacy, Research and Education on Mental Health) and was a Co-Principal Investigator for VISHRAM (VIdarbha Stress and Health ProgRAM). He works closely with the Government of Madhya Pradesh and has led the scaling up of mental health services across the state as part of SOHAM initiative.
Steven Allen
Steven Allen is a Campaigns Director of the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre (MDAC), an international human rights organisation using the law to secure justice, inclusion and equality for people with mental disabilities worldwide. He is responsible for overseeing MDAC’s international and domestic campaigns work, including managing advocacy, research, policy and law reform programmes. Steven regularly represents MDAC before regional and international bodies, including at the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. His involvement in mental health law and policy came from his own experience of seeking justice following his mother’s death whilst detained in a psychiatric hospital in London. Prior to MDAC, Steven was a specialist in facilitating conflict resolution programmes, including for young people with mental health issues, in the UK and the Middle East. He has over ten years of experience in conducting monitoring of institutional settings including social care institutions, psychiatric hospitals, and was an independent statutory monitor of a young offenders’ prison for five years. He holds an LLB from the University of London.
Dr. Soumitra Pathare
Soumitra Pathare (Course Co-ordinator) is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Director of Centre for Mental Health Law and Policy at ILS. He has contributed to the WHO Mental Health Policy and Service Guidance Package. He has worked as a consultant in various countries like Seychelles, Eritrea, Indonesia, Lesotho, Samoa and Vanuatu assisting them in developing mental health policy and drafting and implementing mental health legislation. He helped draft India's new mental health law and was a member of the Policy Group appointed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, to draft a new national mental health policy for India. He was the Project Lead on QualityRights Gujarat project to implement WHO QualityRights program in public mental health services in Gujarat. He is also Project Director of SPIRIT, a NIMH funded Hub for suicide prevention in South East Asia. He is also a member of the ATMIYATA team which is scaling up a lay volunteer based community program to improve access to mental health services in rural Gujarat.
Sylvester Katontoka
Sylvester Katontoka, consumer, founder and President of the Mental Health Users Network of Zambia (MHUNZA) was diagnosed with depression in 1996. In 1998, became involved in championing for the promotion and protecting of the rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities. Since then i devoted my efforts in activism, with my main areas in fighting, stigma, discrimination and poverty among persons with psychosocial disabilities. My involvement in the field of mental health helped me to acquire some insight in issues of mental health. Among them are Issues of treatment, care, support and rehabilitation. Have a University Certificate in Social Work from University of Zambia and obtained an International Diploma in Mental Health, Human Rights and Law from Indian Law Society, Pune-India. I have attended and spoken at a number of major conferences including those organized by World Health Organization, World Psychiatry Association, and World Federation for Mental Health, World Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, and the first Pan-African Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry Congress. The Swiss Foundation for World Health in collaboration with the World Health Organization has chosen Mr. Sylvester Katontoka as the laureate of the Award 2008 for an “Outstanding achievement in the field of Mental Health Care”. He was appointed a Board Member of the Zambia Agency for Persons with Disabilities. In 2014, was awarded Ambassadorial Status for his leadership in mainstreaming disability issues in Zambia. Participated in a research and produced the First ever Mental Health Report “Mental Health and Human Rights in Zambia-2014”. The Report is proving evidence based data giving a better understanding of the bigger picture of human rights violations in Zambia. The Report has called for need of urgency to have a New Human rights based Mental Health Legislation.
