Dr Soumitra Pathare is a consultant psychiatrist, and the Director of the Centre for Mental Health Law & Policy, Indian Law Society, Pune, India. His primary interests are in the areas of suicide prevention, mental health policy, scaling up mental health services, rights-based care, and legislation.
In the past, he has provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, in drafting India’s Mental Healthcare Act 2017, which takes a rights-based approach to mental healthcare. He was also a member of the Mental Health Policy Group appointed by the Government of India to draft India’s first National Mental Health Policy released in October 2014.
He has conceptualised & steered various innovative community-led mental health interventions and strongly believes all persons with mental illness should be able to fully participate in society, as everyone else!