Supervisors: Dr Bilal Avan; Associate Supervisor: Prof Betty Kirkwood
“I have always wanted to be a part of the miracle that Science is.”
The above statement reflects Divya’s career goal in a nutshell. Her motivation for doing research at the PhD level stems from an important fact that she want sto substantially contribute to and be an active part of the global mental health movement and the larger scientific community.
She registered as a PhD candidate under the Capacity Research Strengthening Scheme at the school. Her research is trying to understand the impact of a nutrition and responsive-care intervention through home visits on maternal depression and, subsequently, on child growth and development in rural India.
Divya is a graduate in Psychology and Public Health with more than ten years experience as a Mental Health professional, working in clinical, community and rehabilitative settings in India and more than two years of programmatic and research exposure within a public health context. Mostly working with and through NGOs, she delivered programs of psychiatric and developmental rehabilitation, individual and group counselling mainly employing cognitive behavioural principles, community mental health, training and capacity building. Dealing with diverse client profiles mainly at a therapeutic level, shaped and confirmed her professional belief that mental health services need to be integrated with other health and development initiatives that a society undertakes.
Keen to view the scenario of mental disabilities through a public health lens, she completed an MSc from the school in Public Health in Developing Countries in 2011. Her summer project, which was based in Goa, India focused on informing the design of psychological treatments that can be delivered by Non-Specialist Health Workers for Depressive Disorders and Alcohol Use Disorders in Low Resourced Settings was a field-based research project in India.
She wide-ranging interests in mental health but the area that fascinates her most is serious psychotic illnesses such as Schizophrenia and Mood disorders. The population she loves working with is children and adolescents.
