New York: Mumbai-born psychiatrist and researcher Vikram Patel will be the next chair of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine from September 1. Patel, who replaces Paul Farmer, is the Passing Square Professor of Global Health at the Blavachic Institute at Harvard Medical School and a renowned expert on global mental health. Harvard Medical School (HMS) Dean George Q. Daly said Vikram is a worthy successor and uniquely prepared to carry the torch. A respected and charismatic teacher, Vikram (Patel) was recruited into HMS in 2017.
Daly said in a statement issued by HMS announcing the appointment that Patel’s appointment comes at a time of growing awareness of the growing mental health crisis around the world. Patel heads Harvard’s Global Mental Health, an interdisciplinary initiative, as well as the Mental Health Laboratory within the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine. He launched the Empower program in 2020, as part of a global mental health initiative, to equip frontline health workers with digital tools to enable them to learn and take evidence-based psychosocial interventions needed to address their mental health issues. And a suite of methods can be deployed.
I am deeply honored to serve as the department’s chair, said Patel. I am inspired by the potential of the role at this important juncture in the long storied history of the Department committed to the goal of health equity in this country and globally. Globally, Patel has served on several World Health Organization advisory committees and on several Lancet commissions on global mental health. Recently headed the Lancet-World Psychiatric Association Commission on Depression. He was the co-founder of the India-based NGO Sangat, which won the MacArthur Foundation’s International Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2008.
He is a member of a group constituted by the Union Ministry of Health, which was tasked with writing India’s first mental health policy and preparing the National Mental Health Program for the period 2012–17. In 2015 he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year, and in 2019, he was awarded the John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award, considered the most prestigious global health award.
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