Kamal Guatam

Dr. Kamal Gautam, MD is a Psychiatrist and Executive Director at a leading mental health organization in Nepal viz. Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Nepal (TPO Nepal). He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Center for Global Mental Health Equity, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Health, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., USA.  Over the past decade, he has been dedicated to global mental health especially focusing on integrating mental health into primary health care and communities; strengthening the government health, education and protection systems; and drafting, endorsement and implementation of policies and action plans to foster mental health care in Nepal. He also serves as a MHPSS Expert to Unicef.

His research areas of interest include- integration of mental health into primary care, stigma reduction, suicide prevention and child and adolescent mental health (prevention and promotion). He worked in team under the NIH-funded R01 project- Reducing Stigma among Healthcare Providers to Improve Mental Health Services (RESHAPE) (Role: Co-I). His current research projects include- NIMH R34 study EQUIP-SU (Ensuring Quality in Psychological Support – Service User Quality Assessment) (Role: Co-I); University of Melbourne funded “Perceptions and experiences of media professionals in relation to media reporting of suicide-related news in Nepal” (Role: PI); NIMH funded R33 study StandStrong 3 (Sensing Technology to personAlize materNal DepreSsion TReatment in lOw resource settiNGs) (Role: Co-I) and  the Wellcome Trust funded project ALIVE (Improving Adolescent mentaL health by reducing the Impact of poverty). He also leads the Lived Experience Advisory (LEA) Group at TPO Nepal and has also been contributing to formation and operationalization of Adolescent Advisory Group (AAG) at TPO Nepal. These groups have been engaged in project designing, implementation and co-creation of interventions. 

He has contributed to national level mental health training curriculum development and endorsement based on task-sharing approaches of WHO. These include National Health Training Centre (NHTC) accredited training modules on mental health -Module 1 to 6. Additionally, he leads the technical working group formed under the National Planning Commission of the Government of Nepal which has been drafting the National Action Plan against Suicide. He also provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health & Population (MoHP) in inclusion of mental health module, capacity building of researchers and writing workshop under the Nepal Demographic Survey (NDHS) 2022. He has been providing technical assistance to the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Prime Minister’s Office to integrate MMAPP (Measuring Mental Health of Adolescents at the Population Level) tool in the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in collaboration with Unicef. He has published a number of book chapters and articles.