Jim van Os is a Dutch academic and psychiatrist. He is Professor of Psychiatry and medical manager of the Brain Center at Utrecht University Medical Center, the Netherlands.
Dan Joseph Stein is a South African psychiatrist who is a professor and Chair of the Dept of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town, and Director of the South African MRC Unit on Risk & Resilience in Mental Disorders. Stein was the Director of UCT's early Brain and Behaviour Initiative, and was the inaugural Scientific Director of UCT's later Neuroscience Institute. He has also been a visiting professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the United States, and at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Thomas Adeoye Lambo, was a Nigerian scholar, administrator and psychiatrist. He is credited as the first western trained psychiatrist in Africa. Between 1971 and 1988, he worked at the World Health Organization, becoming the agency's Deputy Director General.
Professor Benjamin Oluwakayode Osuntokun, was a researcher and neurologist from Okemesi, Ekiti State, Nigeria. Known for discovering the cause of ataxic tropical neuropathy, he was a founding member of the Pan African Association of Neurological Sciences and an early advocate and researcher on tropical neurology.
Kelsey Atangamuerimo Harrison is an emeritus professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and former vice-chancellor of University of Port Harcourt, who contributed immensely to studies of maternal health, especially during pregnancy. As a researcher at the University of Ibadan, he mapped out the effects of severe anaemia on the mother and her baby, and established the safety of treating gross anaemia by packed cell transfusion combined with rapidly acting diuretic. He was also part of a group that discovered the dangerous threat posed by sickle cell disease to maternal and fetal lives among Africans. In Zaria, the results of the work of a team he led, became the most powerful boost to international advocacy for better maternal and perinatal health in developing countries. Now retired, his life is summed up thus - an obstetrician and gynaecologist, a teacher and trainer, medical academic, university administrator, a sort of social activist, and a cricket and music fan.
The Mental Disability Advocacy Center (MDAC) is an international human rights organisation founded in Hungary in 2002. It is headquartered in Budapest.
Alexander Obiefoka Enukora Animalu is a Nigerian academic, who is Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
Muhammad Ali Pate is a Nigerian physician and politician who is the current Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Nigeria since 2023. He's also a professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. He formerly served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population and director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) at the World Bank Group. Pate is also the former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria.
Dinesh Kumar Makhan Lal Bhugra is a professor of mental health and diversity at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London. He is an honorary consultant psychiatrist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and is former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. He has been president of the World Psychiatric Association and the President Elect of the British Medical Association.
Vikram Harshad Patel FMedSci is an Indian psychiatrist and researcher best known for his work on child development and mental disability in low-resource settings. He is the Co-Founder and former Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Co-Director of the Centre for Control of Chronic Conditions at the Public Health Foundation of India, and the Co-Founder of Sangath, an Indian NGO dedicated to research in the areas of child development, adolescent health and mental health. Since 2016 he has been Pershing Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine of Harvard Medical School in Boston. He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship in 2015. In April 2015, he was listed as one of the world's 100 most influential people by TIME magazine.
Seth Sunday Ajayi is a Nigerian scientist, scholar and the first African Professor of Wildlife Ecology.
The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, also known as Yaba Psychiatric Hospital or Yaba Left, is a Nigerian Federal psychiatric hospital in Yaba, a suburb of Lagos.
Mental healthcare generally refers to services ranging from assessment, diagnosis, treatment, to counseling, dedicated to maintaining and restoring mental well being of people. In Nigeria, there is significant disparity between the demand and supply of mental health services. Though there are policies aimed at addressing mental health issues in Nigeria, in-depth information on mental health service in Nigeria is non-existent. This makes it difficult to identify areas of needs, coordinate activities of advocacy groups, and make an informed decision about policy direction. In effect, there is continued neglect of mental health issues. About 25-30 percent of Nigerians suffer from mental illness and less than 10 percent of this population have access to professional assistance. The World Health Organization estimates that only about three percent of the government's budget on health goes to mental health.
Shekhar Saxena, MD, FRCPsych, DAB, MRC, Psych, since 1998 has worked at the World Health Organization (WHO) and since 2010 has been the Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (MSD) at World Health Organization's Headquarters Office in Geneva, Switzerland. He is recipient of the 2017 Leon Eisenberg Award. In September 2018 joined the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health as visiting professor of Global Mental Health in the Department of Global Health and Population.
David Goldbloom, OC, MD, FRCPC is a Canadian psychiatrist, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, author, lecturer and mental health advocate. He most recently served from 2003-2022 as the Senior Medical Advisor of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and a psychiatric consultant. He is also a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and lectures to students, colleagues, and the general public. Goldbloom has received various awards and recognition for his work in Psychiatry and is an honorary member of The College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Sir Graham Thornicroft PhD is a British psychiatrist, researcher and Professor of Community Psychiatry at the Centre for Global Mental Health and Centre for Implementation Science at King's College London. He also a Consultant Psychiatrist working at a community mental health team at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He is best known for his work on community mental health services, stigma and discrimination, and global mental health. He has published over 30 books, and has written over 670 peer-reviewed scientific papers. Graham was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to mental health.
Olayinka Olusola Omigbodun is the first Nigerian female professor of psychiatry. She is a Professor at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is also the first female provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
Femi Oyebode is a retired Professor and Head of Department of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham. He has investigated the relationships between literature and psychiatry. His research has considered descriptive psychopathology and delusional misidentification syndrome. He was awarded the 2016 Royal College of Psychiatrists lifetime achievement award.
Pamela Y. Collins is an American psychiatrist. She is the Director of the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH) and the Global Mental Health Program at the University of Washington School of Medicine and School of Public Health. Collins is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of global health. She previously worked as the director of the Office for Research on Disparities and Global Mental Health at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Tolani Asuni, was a Nigerian medical doctor and psychiatrist. Asuni was one of the first indigenous psychiatrists in Nigeria and is credited with promoting mental health in Africa. He was educated in Nigeria and the West and returned to Nigeria for his professional life. Asuni became the foundation professor of psychiatry at University College Hospital Ibadan where he worked from 1957 to 1976 as the Medical Superintendent of Aro Medical Hospital. From 1979 to 1984, he was the Director of the United Nations Social Defence Research Institute in Rome, Italy. Asuni was a suicidologist and forensic psychiatrist. His 1975 textbook, Mental Health and Disease in Africa, was used for many years by undergraduates and graduate students of mental health. Asuni helped to improve global understanding of mental health in Africa and abroad and he promoted the universality of mental health conditions.
