MP 6 Dementia: perspectives from developing countries

Abstract

Dr Mathew Varghese is Professor of Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) at Bangalore, India. He did his training in Medicine at the St John9s Medical College, Bangalore and specialised in Psychiatry at NIMHANS in 1984. Since then he has been a faculty at the Department of Psychiatry, NIMHANS for over 25 years. His work at NIMHANS involves clinical services, postgraduate teaching, research and administration. At present he heads an Adult Unit, the Geriatric Clinic and Services and the Family Psychiatry Center at the Department. Dr Varghese9s areas of interest are psychogeriatrics, family psychiatry and rehabilitation. He has developed family intervention manuals for WHO projects for use with caregivers of persons with dementia and schizophrenia. He has been involved with research on dementia and since 1998 is one of the founding members of the International 10/66 Dementia Research Group and a member of the World Federation of Neurology Dementia Research Group. He was an investigator on the World Mental Health survey in India. At present he has many ongoing research projects supported by international and national agencies like the Fogarty International Center, the Wellcome Trust, the Department of Science and Technology and Dept of Biotechnology, India. He has over 70 publications in journals, monographs and books. Besides work at the NIMHANS he is a visiting faculty and examiner to other postgraduate courses in mental health. He is on the governing board of the World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation (India), the Alzheimer9s Disease International, the ARDSI and rehabilitation centers like the Richmond Fellowship Society (RFS) and the Medico Pastoral Association. He was the President, Indian Psychiatric Society (Karnataka State Branch) and is the Vice President, ARDSI (Bangalore) and the Secretary-General of the RFS India. He has also helped organise many conferences, symposia and workshops and was the Organising Secretary of the World Association for Psychosocial Rehabilitation World Congress 2009 at Bangalore. He is the National Coordinator for the National Dementia Strategy of the ARDSI and author of the Dementia India Report 2010.