Dr Porpavai Kasiannan

DPM, MD, FRANZCP, Cert Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, DPMSA (London), MA Philosophy and Mental Health (UCLAN, UK)

Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Founder and Director, Pathways Foundation Kovai

Dr Porpavai is a child, adolescent and family psychiatrist with more than thirty years of experience in the field. After completing MBBS at Coimbatore Medical College she studied Diploma in Psychological Medicine and MD in Psychiatry at Christian Medical College, Vellore. She furthered her interests in child and adolescent psychiatry at Melbourne, Australia and received the Fellowship at the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in 2000. She was the recipient of the awards of best outgoing student in MBBS and DPM. She has worked in India, Australia and the UK. She currently works as a senior consultant child psychiatrist in Australia. She has further qualifications in ethics and philosophy of medicine and a masters degree in philosophy and mental health.

With the aim of extending the benefits of her experience to her native place, Dr Porpavai started the NGO, Pathways Foundation at Coimbatore in December 2014. Dr Porpavai has been conducting workshops for parents for a number of years to improve their skills in managing the ever increasing challenges they face in raising children in the twenty first century. Dr Porpavai also has been conducting workshops for professionals to improve knowledge and skill base in child and adolescent mental health.

Dr Porpavai is passionate about her work and is dedicated to informing parents, teachers and professionals about the changes that can be done to improve the quality of life for our children and youth. With this in mind Pathways has developed a new training program in child and adolescent mental health. Dr Porpavai will coordinate the program.

Dr Tejas Golhar                                                                                                                                   

MD PDF FRANZCP Cert. Child Adol. Psych.

Consultant Child and Youth Psychiatrist,  affiliated with Goulburn Valley Health, Shepparton and  Department of Psychiatry University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra, Dr Golhar has lived and worked in Shepparton, Victoria, Australia since 2012. He completed his  MBBS at Govt Medical College, Nagpur Maharashtra and  MD Psychiatry at National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. Dr Golhar completed three years of senior residency in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (including a Post-doc Fellowship) at the Dept of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP), NIMHANS, Bangalore. Following this, he became a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (FRANZCP) and completed further Advanced Training in CAP in Victoria, Australia. Dr Golhar regularly holds education sessions for GPs, pediatricians, counselors, and schools. He is also a teacher for medical students and psychiatry trainees at the University of Melbourne. Dr Golhar believes in empowering the system of care around young people to support the development and mental health of this vulnerable population ‘closer to home’ for them.

Dr Chhitij Srivastava

MD, DNB, MRCPsych, CCT (in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)

Consultant Psychiatrist Allahabad Child Development Centre; Consultant Psychiatrist at Psychiatry UK, a leading online psychiatric service in the UK; Affiliate at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London; Adjunct faculty at the Centre of Behaviour and Cognitive Sciences, University of Allahabad. 

Dr Srivastava is a Psychiatrist with specialist training in Child & Adolescent psychiatry. He trained at one of the best psychiatric institutes in India and the UK. His Indian training was from King George’s Medical University, Lucknow  followed by training at  the South London & Maudsley NHS Trust, which is widely considered to be one of the best psychiatric set-ups in the world. Dr Srivastava has rich experience of being involved in teaching and training roles and working as Consultant both in the UK and India. He has previously worked as Professor of Psychiatry at Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, Allahabad, India. He is the former secretary of IACAM (Indian Association of Child & Adolescent Mental health) and is currently the convenor of child psychiatry section of IPS (Indian Psychiatric Society). His areas of interests include all aspects of psychiatry, but especially neurodevelopmental, mood and anxiety disorders. Dr Srivastava uses both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods in my practice, especially cognitive behaviour therapy, family therapy and parent training.

Dr Srivastava is an enthusiastic athlete, which he believes has taught him the immense benefits of physical exercise in enhancing one’s mental health.

Prof. S M Manohari

DPM, DNB, MRCPsych

Professor- Department of Psychiatry St John’s Medical College and Hospital Bangalore, MBBS from Coimbatore Medical College, Coimbatore 1987, DPM & DNB from National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore 1991 and 1993, MRC Psych from Royal College of Psychiatrist London 1996. Also underwent training in child and adolescent psychiatry in premier institutes in England

After working as lecturer and assistant professor at Devaraj Urs Medical College and Bangalore Medical College and Victoria hospital, is currently working as Professor of Psychiatry and Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at St John’s Medical College and Hospital, Bangalore.

Areas of special interest include

• Eating disorders
• ADHD
• Work in the area of adolescence and sexual behaviour in typically growing children and in intellectually disabled people

Dr Vikram Palanisamy

Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPC),  Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in Intellectual Disability Psychiatry, UK,  Diploma in Clinical Psychiatry,

University of Leeds, UK, MRCPsych, London, UK,  MD Psychiatry (University Gold Medallist), IMH, Chennai, India

Dr Palanisamy was born and brought up in Coimbatore and graduated from Coimbatore Medical College in 1998. He completed psychiatry training in India in 2002. Following this, he moved to UK and completed general psychiatry training and went on to specialise in Psychiatry of Intellectual Disability (ID). Dr Palanisamy worked as a Consultant in National Health Service (NHS) in England for few years and migrated to Canada in 2017 and is currently working as a Psychiatrist in British Columbia, Canada.

Dr Palanisamy’s areas of expertise are

• Assessment and psychiatric management of mental illness and Challenging Behaviours (CB) in people with ID and/or ASD across the age range.
• Diagnosis and management of ASD and ADHD in people with or without ID across the age range.
• Diagnosis and management of Dementia in people with ID.
• Management of adults with ID admitted to a specialist ID inpatient setting.
• Development and implementation of clinical care pathways to deliver high quality care in a ID setting.
• Organising and delivering ID psychiatry teaching & developing clinical curriculum for medical students, core trainees in psychiatry and fellowship trainees specialising in ID psychiatry.

 Dr Palanisamy loves playing cricket, watching movies, listening to Tamil songs and spending time with like minded friends.

Dr Soumya Basu

DPM, MD, FRANZCP, Faculty membership child, adolescent psychiatry

Dr Soumya Basu completed DPM and MD in India and gained FRANZCP and Faculty membership in child and adolescent psychiatry  in Australia. Dr Basu is an associate professor in the department of psychological medicine and is the coordinator of child and adolescent registrar training at  Monash University. He currently works as a child and adolescent psychiatrist with Monash Health and has previously worked at  Latrobe regional hospital as a consultant psychiatrist for 14 years. Dr Basu also works in private practice. He is well acknowledged in Gippsland area of Victoria for his expertise in child, adolescent and youth psychiatry. Dr Basu has 20 years of experience as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He has keen research interests in youth mental health, early intervention, developmental trauma, developmental disabilities, transcultural child psychiatry, autism and psychosis and association of personality disorders with neuro developmental disorders. Dr Basu has presented a number of papers in national and international conferences, webinars and has been invited to provide keynote addresses from RANZCP. Dr Basu is fluent in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and English.

Dr Sowmya B

MBBS, MD Psychiatry, DM Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Dr Sowmya pursued her M.B.B.S training at Mahatma Gandhi Mission’s Medical College, Mumbai. Her keen desire to serve and insightful understanding of people fuelled her desire to pursue Psychiatry as a career choice. She studied her M.D. Psychiatry at Madras Medical College, Chennai. During this period, she discovered her inclination and love for working with children and youth with mental health concerns. This led her to write a competitive national level examination in which she stood first and went on to pursue D.M (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry) at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore. In clinical practice, she works exclusively with children, adolescents (0-18 years) and their families. She specialises in diagnosis and treatment of psychological, behavioural and developmental disorders affecting this population.
She provides psychotherapy, medication management and parental guidance.

Dr Suhas Chandran

MD Psychiatry, PDF Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Dr Suhas Chandran is a member of the early career group of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP) and the World Association of Social Psychiatry (WASP). He is an adjunct Faculty, Centre for Advanced Research and Excellence in Autism and Developmental Disorders (CAREADD) at St. John’s Bangalore and the Project Lead on “The Teenager-Young Adult Autism Program (TYA)” and “The Gut Microbiome & Metabolomic program in ASD”.

Dr Suhas Chandran coordinates the Post Doctoral Fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry under the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka (2023- current). Additionally he is involved in the training of psychiatry residents, paediatric residents, medical students and nursing students at this university in child and adolescent mental health. He has had over 82 scientific publications published in peer reviewed indexed International and National medical journals, 9 book chapters as well as 8 edited books to his credit.

Dr Suhas Chandran’s areas of special interest include clinical services & research projects in eating disorders in adolescents, home based & community-based interventions for adolescents with Autism, Gut-Brain axis in autism, Grief in children, Tourette’s syndrome, family system based interventions in child psychiatry, health anxiety by proxy in mothers, Disorders of sexual development and Gender Dysphoria in adolescents.

Dr Suhas Chandran is the recipient of Early career Award from the World Association of Social Psychiatry (WASP) and the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych, UK) at the Joint Congress, London, 2023, Donald J Cohen Fellow, International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professionals (IACAPAP), Rio, 2024 and the Advanced in Country Research Award: From the University of Pittsburgh & National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for A Multi-centre Trial to Evaluate Efficacy of Electronic-Based Psychosocial Interventions on Suicide Risk in Adolescents.

Dr Meenakshi Sundaram Shanmugam

MBBS, M.D, FRANZCP, Cert C&A Psych

Dr Sundar is the Medical Director, Community Mental Health, Brisbane, Queensland health and  a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland

Sundar, as he is known as, trained as a Child and Adolescent psychiatrist in Australia (Mindful – Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, 2008) and in India (National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences, NIMHANS, Bangalore, 2005). He has been working as a Consultant Child Psychiatrist in Australia since 2009. Dr Sundar is a valued teacher to medical students, psychiatry registrars, and allied health clinicians in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

His special interests include:

• Long term therapy with children and adolescents experiencing anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and other emotional/ conduct problems
• Family therapy to improve parent-child relationships and to prevent and treat childhood problems
• Diagnostic assessments of Developmental Disorders like Autism, ADHD, language disorders and mixed conditions
• Safe use of needed medications with comprehensive monitoring and education.
• He shares his expertise and collaborates with other professionals, GPs, schools, psychologists, speech pathologists or Occupational therapists working with the family to achieve better outcome for his patients and families.

Dr Vibhay Raykar

MD, MRCPsych, FRANZCPsych

Clinical Director, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Goulburn Valley Health, Shepparton, Australia

Vibhay Raykar is a child and adolescent psychiatrist and clinical director of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) program at Goulburn Valley (GV) Health, a large regional hospital, located in Shepparton, Victoria. He is also an honorary fellow at the Rural Health Academic Centre, University of Melbourne. He was awarded the ZERO TO THREE fellowship (class of 2014-16) and is a member of the Academy of ZERO TO THREE fellows and its Leadership Development Initiative (LDI) Advisory Council. He trained in the 1st Child Parent Psychotherapy course conducted by Julie Lareau in Adelaide in 2016-17.

Dr Raykar completed his medical and basic psychiatry training at the University of Mumbai, India. He travelled to UK to pursue specialist training in child psychiatry and obtained the Membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), UK. He moved to Australia in 2008 and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) and member of its Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists. He trained in Infant Mental Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne and has been instrumental in setting up an infant mental health team within the CAMHS program at GV Health and the GV IMH Network Group.

He works with infants, children, adolescents and parents with mental illnesses in a culturally diverse rural setting with considerable social disadvantage and a large immigrant population. His other interests include service and staff development, psychotherapy and personality disorders. He has a wealth of experience working in both rural and urban settings of three diverse health systems namely India, UK and Australia. He is passionate about his work and loves travel, photography and cycling.