Dr. Shidhaye is a clinical psychiatrist and epidemiologist who has worked in clinical psychiatry and public mental health for the last 14 years in India with a specific focus on reducing the treatment gap for mental disorders by translating evidence-based treatments in ‘real-world’ setting. His work covers five major areas; a) epidemiology of mental disorders with a focus on social determinants;, b) generating evidence on translating knowledge into practice; c) mental health systems strengthening in low and middle-income countries and building capacity in the field of implementation science; d) synthesizing knowledge to facilitate policy uptake; and e) provision of clinical mental health services.

Dr. Shidhaye completed undergraduate medical training (M.B.B.S.) from Seth G.S. Medical College, Mumbai and residency training in psychiatry at B. J. Medical College, Ahmedabad. He received the U. N. Mehta Gold Medal medal for standing first in the MD (psychiatry) examination conducted by Gujarat University (India). He was a fellow of the Future Faculty Programme, Public Health Foundation of India and was awarded a scholarship to pursue a masters degree in Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Based on his work to integrate mental health in primary care, he completed a PhD at Maastricht University in 2018.

Since 2008, Dr. Shidhaye has led various mental health research programs in India. Until 2018, he was the principal investigator (PI) for the NIMH-funded ESSENCE (Enabling translation of Science to Service to Enhance Depression Care) project and country-PI for PRIME (Program for Improving Mental Health Care) research program consortium. Prior to that, he was country-PI for EMERALD (Emerging Mental Health Systems in Low and Middle Income Countries) and SHARE (South Asian Hub for Advocacy, Research and Education on Mental Health) consortia as well as Co-PI on the VISHRAM project (Vidarbha Stress and Health Program), a community-based mental health program to address psycho-social distress of suicide-affected rural communities in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. His most significant contribution is in the application of implementation science to translate evidence-based treatments for mental disorders in real-world setting. Dr. Shidhaye played a key role in establishing the collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh which resulted in the launch of the SOHAM initiative based on the PRIME model to scale up mental health services across Madhya Pradesh.

Dr. Shidhaye has more than 80 peer-reviewed publications (h-index: 22, i10-index:36), with seven publications in the Lancet and the Lancet Psychiatry. For the full-list of his publications, click here …

He is based full-time in Pune as a consultant clinical psychiatrist in Ruby Hall Clinic. He plans to study knowledge systems across various cultures with special focus on Indian knowledge systems and their application in the field of motivation of the human resource and ways to incorporate ‘compassion’ in health care delivery. He is particularly interested in cross-cultural aspects of psychiatry and plans to design and evaluate psychological and social intervention embedded in Indian and other local cultures with special focus on Yoga and Vipassana.