Advisory Board
Dr Soumitra Pathare
Dr. Soumitra Pathare is a psychiatrist and the Director of Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune, India. His primary interests are in the areas of mental health policy, scaling up mental health services, suicide prevention, rights-based care and legislation. In the past, he has provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in drafting India’s new Mental Healthcare Act, 2017 which takes a rights-based approach to mental health care. He has also served as a WHO consultant in many low- and middle-income countries.
He has conceptualised and steered various innovative community-led mental health interventions and strongly believes all persons with mental illness should be able to fully participate in society, as everyone else. Over the years, Dr Pathare has been a generous supporter of the work and initiatives of Mental Health Support Foundation
He has conceptualised and steered various innovative community-led mental health interventions and strongly believes all persons with mental illness should be able to fully participate in society, as everyone else. Over the years, Dr Pathare has been a generous supporter of the work and initiatives of Mental Health Support Foundation
Tanya Dutt
Tanya Dutt is the Executive Director of Kromatiks & Insulants Pvt Ltd, Chennai, manufacturing and exporting Pigment Dispersions for thermoset polymers. She is the Co-founder of Atmanirbhar Trust a Non profit NGO founded in 2012 that focuses on providing employment solutions to persons with mental health issues with a vision of empowering individuals with mental health issues to become self-reliant and part of the work force in the community. Tanya is the Secretary of AASHA - a 33 year old NGO formed and managed by families/caregivers of persons with mental health issues. AASHA runs a 25 bed residential rehabilitation home in Chennai. She is passionate about the cause of mental health having grown up with a family member with Schizophrenia. When she isn’t working Tanya can be found playing with her dogs.
Professor Raghu Raghavan
Professor Raghavan holds a chair in mental health at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. He is the Director of Mary Seacole Research Centre – an interdisciplinary research institute focussing on mental health, migration, ethnicity and culture. He is also the Director of Lifelong Wellbeing research theme at De Montfort University. He is also co-director of Leicester Centre for Mental Health Research (LCMHR). He has extensive experience of interdisciplinary research methodology using creative arts-based approaches for co-creating knowledge of lived expertise and cultural mental health perspectives from urban and rural communities. He holds a number of UK Research and Innovation and National institute of Health Research UK research grants, and has published widely with over 140 publications on the theme of mental health and disability of diverse cultural communities IN India and the UK. He is Trustee of MeHeLP India Foundation, NGO working in urban and rural India promoting culturally appropriate mental health literacy.
Dr Anjali Gokarn
Dr Anjali Gokarn, MBBS, MD is a Pediatrician by Profession. She has been in practise at Vasai, near Mumbai, for the last 35 years. Anjali has had first-hand connect with mental health conditions on several fronts. She has been living with Anxiety and Depression for four decades. A holistic approach to healing has helped her recover to remission. In addition to this, she has lived in a family with high prevalence of Mental illnesses. She has been a caregiver to her son who has bipolar disorder. Her struggles around mental health has made Anjali determined to contribute to building mental health awareness and support. Anjali is a fitness enthusiast and is a fine communicator. In recent years, she has been a fine leader and contributor to the peer support community of Bipolarindia.
Puneet Bhatnagar
Puneet Bhatnagar is a branding and business advisor. An innovation expert who brings with him a rich experience of more than 25 years. He was Creative Head at Star News, the part of the think tank that launched the news channel in Hindi. Earlier he was a Creative Director at Bates Asia Mumbai. His creative work has won international awards, and also finds a proud place in the 'Showcase of Indian Advertising.’ As a media and advertising professional, he has rubbed shoulders with the likes of James Murdoch, Big B, and many others. His client list included companies like: Unilever, Nokia, Star Plus, Tata Salt, and many other well known brands. He is co-founder of Creativity Mission India, an initiative to promote creative thinking in society. In this capacity he is leading a city-branding project for the ancient city of Ujjain, a community of more than 1.5 Lac members on social media. And another community of engineers spread in 50+ countries! Significantly, Puneet Bhatnagar has been a Mentor for Bipolarindia and now, for MHSF.