Biography

Dr. Mehnaz Zafar Ali has several years of clinical and academic experience in field of mental health as Consultant Psychiatrist and Head of rehabilitation oriented and recovery focused community services in United Arab Emirates. She pursued her residency program in Psychiatry from India, followed by Membership from Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK. She has been appointed as Director at Large, World Federation of Mental Health (2021-2023) to promote the vision of the organization across boundaries. She serves as Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Mohammed Bin Rashid University and accreditation surveyor for specialty residency and fellowship programs at National Institute for health specialties. Dr. Mehnaz has wide interest in academics and research which was honored in 2020 by the Ministry of Health. She has been an examiner for universities, chaired various conferences and has internal publications to her credit. Her contribution towards Liaison Psychiatry (Bariatric surgery) in 2019 was recognized and the clinical service received accreditation by Joint Commission International. She chairs committee for patient records and health information system overarching Cerner technology which helps in developing quality processes and performance indicators. Her key interests lie in expansion of community psychiatry services and mental health advocacy across the globe. Her simultaneous focus is to work towards deeper inclusion of mental and behavioural sciences in undergraduate curriculum across universities to ensure that the future health care professionals have the basic understanding and recognition of mental health issues and are able to refer patients in a time appropriate manner.