Gauthamadas Udipi
Encyclopedia
Gauthamadas Udipi is a Professor of Psychiatry in India who has been acknowledged for his contribution to the field of Disaster Mental Health in the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami.
. Taking charge as Director of the disaster management psycho-social intervention program of the National Lutheran Health and Medical Board - he propounded a post disaster Social Transformation framework and implemented it successfully to provide long-term disaster health-care and psychosocial intervention projects in 51 Tsunami affected villages in Cuddalore
District of Tamilnadu, 156 quake affected villages in Kashmir
, and flood affected villages in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh
. Dr. Gautham was instrumental in creating a 1000 member strong Disaster Preparedness Youth Task Force in 50 Tsunami affected villages in Cuddalore district in Tamilnadu. His views on designing the health-care disaster relief team feature in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Mission 2009 document. One of his unique programs was to link communities affected by different disasters in order that disaster relief and preparedness knowledge may be shared
His team has the distinction of being the only group offering medical relief to quake survivors during the deep winter in Indian Kashmir.
Dr. Gautham organized five International workshops, the reports of which have been widely circulated and are said to have been instrumental in shaping the Sri Lanka
Government’s Disaster Management Road Map. The National Disaster Management Authority of India invited him to review the draft of National Disaster Management Guidelines - Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Services and incorporated his suggestions into the final document.
Status papers on "Social Transformation of Communities Affected by Natural Disasters" and "Psychosocial intervention in complex disasters" by Dr. Gautham, helped to implement recovery in the Tsunami affected communities. The training module for creating Community Support Leaders developed by Dr. Gautham helped transform educated unemployed women in disaster affected regions into community leaders who were respected and looked up to.
The Model for Crisis Intervention in Large Scale Disasters using "Lay Community Counsellors" developed by him was used to set up the Community Counselor
project in which 2500 villagers of 51 Tsunami affected villages in Cuddalore district were trained as Lay Community Counselors
and provided succor to nearly one hundred thousand villagers affected by the trauma of the Tsunami.
Dr. Gautham's Handbook for Community Counselor Trainers is catalogued by the National Library of the Government of India and recommended by the Disaster Risk Management Team of UNDP and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India and forms part of the Government of India's Disaster Risk Management Program toolkit for "Mainstreaming Disability in Disaster Management. It is catalogued by UNHCR's Humanitarian Library and the Tamilnadu Government Library. It has been quoted in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
– Mission 2009 document on the "Tsunami threat in the Pacific", and the internationally acclaimed "Facilitators Guide for Community Based Psychosocial Services in Humanitarian Assistance". The handbook is one of the recommended material by the Association for Development of Education in Africa.. The book has been translated into Japanese and has been used for counseling the traumatized survivors of Japan's worst ever disaster (combined earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear leak) of 2011. It has also been translated into Romanian.
A bi-lingual (English & Tamil) "Safety and Preparedness Coloring and Activity Book" for children, to prepare them to face day to day crises and future disasters designed by Dr. Gautham has been appreciated by the Education Department of Government of Tamilnadu.
Accredited as an associate faculty by the Open University Business School, UK he taught on their Executive MBA program in India from 1997 to 2003. During this tenure he had the distinction of being the only faculty from India to serve as a discussion leader in the world wide (8000+ strong) on-line student discussion forum for 4 years running.
Dr. Gautham helped to set up the Post Graduate Diploma in Pre Primary Education through Distance Education in 1990 and authored the course materials in Applied Child Development for Teachers.
In 1996, the Child-to-Child Trust, London, invited Dr. Gautham to set up Child-to-Child South India Resource Group and serve as its Honorary Director, a post that he held till 1999 when the assignment of the Group was completed. The Group, composed of experts in the field, monitored, guided, and provided training for projects funded by the Trust in South India.
Dr. Gautham was instrumental in getting the University of Madras
to introduce concessions for students with Learning Disability
in 2004.
The course designed and taught by him at at California Lutheran University, was a trendsetter
. The WHO invited him to serve as the sole resource person from India for the WHO Early Childhood Care and Development program in Developing countries from 1993 to 1996.
He has been an academic council member of the Annamalai University
(1993 to 1995), and the autonomous MOP Vaishnav College for Women (2001 to 2005). He has been a member of the Board of studies in Psychology (1993 to 1996), and a planning committee member of the Department of Distance Education at Annamalai University (1992 to 1996). He has served on the doctoral board of the Martin Luther Christian University
(2006 to 2009). The California Lutheran University
invited Dr. Gautham as a Visiting Scholar (Professor) in 2007 & 2008.
, University of Madras
in 1980. He then trained for 2 years in Neurology and Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences and completed his post graduation in Psychiatry from the Institute of Mental Health, Chennai. He holds an MD in Psychiatry, a Diploma in Psychological Medicine, and a Diploma in Child Behavior and Development and has done Doctoral research.
Dr. Gautham has appeared on National TV alongside prominent personalities. He has also done live phone-in Q & A programs on local TV channels. He has featured in or written articles on mental health issues for various newspapers and magazines including the Times Group, and the Hindu
Contribution to Disaster Mental Health
In the aftermath of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami Dr. Gautham decided to lend his expertise to alleviating trauma of the disaster strickenTsunami Disaster
Tsunami Disaster can refer to:* 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami* 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami...
. Taking charge as Director of the disaster management psycho-social intervention program of the National Lutheran Health and Medical Board - he propounded a post disaster Social Transformation framework and implemented it successfully to provide long-term disaster health-care and psychosocial intervention projects in 51 Tsunami affected villages in Cuddalore
Cuddalore
Cuddalore is a fast growing industrial city and headquarter of Cuddalore district in the Tamil Nadu state of southern India. Located south of Pondicherry on the coast of Bay of Bengal, Cuddalore has a large number of industries which employ a great deal of the city's population.Cuddalore is known...
District of Tamilnadu, 156 quake affected villages in Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
, and flood affected villages in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
. Dr. Gautham was instrumental in creating a 1000 member strong Disaster Preparedness Youth Task Force in 50 Tsunami affected villages in Cuddalore district in Tamilnadu. His views on designing the health-care disaster relief team feature in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
Mission 2009 document. One of his unique programs was to link communities affected by different disasters in order that disaster relief and preparedness knowledge may be shared
His team has the distinction of being the only group offering medical relief to quake survivors during the deep winter in Indian Kashmir.
Dr. Gautham organized five International workshops, the reports of which have been widely circulated and are said to have been instrumental in shaping the Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
Government’s Disaster Management Road Map. The National Disaster Management Authority of India invited him to review the draft of National Disaster Management Guidelines - Psychosocial Support and Mental Health Services and incorporated his suggestions into the final document.
Status papers on "Social Transformation of Communities Affected by Natural Disasters" and "Psychosocial intervention in complex disasters" by Dr. Gautham, helped to implement recovery in the Tsunami affected communities. The training module for creating Community Support Leaders developed by Dr. Gautham helped transform educated unemployed women in disaster affected regions into community leaders who were respected and looked up to.
The Model for Crisis Intervention in Large Scale Disasters using "Lay Community Counsellors" developed by him was used to set up the Community Counselor
Community counselor
Community counselors provide counselling for traumatized communities in the aftermath of large-scale natural disasters. They are trained in basic psychological techniques but are not necessarily professional psychologists. While the concept of lay community counselors is not new, the most commonly...
project in which 2500 villagers of 51 Tsunami affected villages in Cuddalore district were trained as Lay Community Counselors
Lay community counsellor
A Lay Community Counsellor is a member of a community who is trained to provide a specific service or to perform certain limited activities within that community.-Transitory Communities:...
and provided succor to nearly one hundred thousand villagers affected by the trauma of the Tsunami.
Dr. Gautham's Handbook for Community Counselor Trainers is catalogued by the National Library of the Government of India and recommended by the Disaster Risk Management Team of UNDP and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India and forms part of the Government of India's Disaster Risk Management Program toolkit for "Mainstreaming Disability in Disaster Management. It is catalogued by UNHCR's Humanitarian Library and the Tamilnadu Government Library. It has been quoted in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
– Mission 2009 document on the "Tsunami threat in the Pacific", and the internationally acclaimed "Facilitators Guide for Community Based Psychosocial Services in Humanitarian Assistance". The handbook is one of the recommended material by the Association for Development of Education in Africa.. The book has been translated into Japanese and has been used for counseling the traumatized survivors of Japan's worst ever disaster (combined earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear leak) of 2011. It has also been translated into Romanian.
A bi-lingual (English & Tamil) "Safety and Preparedness Coloring and Activity Book" for children, to prepare them to face day to day crises and future disasters designed by Dr. Gautham has been appreciated by the Education Department of Government of Tamilnadu.
Other significant contributions
Dr. Gautham has also written a book on Applied Psychology for Police Officers, published by Tamilnadu Police Training Academy, Applied Child Development for Pre Primary Teachers as part of distance education course material for pre-primary teachers, published by Annamalai University, and Disaster Management published by the Christian Institute of Management. He has served on the course material team of the Open University Business School, British Open University (2000 to 2004).Accredited as an associate faculty by the Open University Business School, UK he taught on their Executive MBA program in India from 1997 to 2003. During this tenure he had the distinction of being the only faculty from India to serve as a discussion leader in the world wide (8000+ strong) on-line student discussion forum for 4 years running.
Dr. Gautham helped to set up the Post Graduate Diploma in Pre Primary Education through Distance Education in 1990 and authored the course materials in Applied Child Development for Teachers.
In 1996, the Child-to-Child Trust, London, invited Dr. Gautham to set up Child-to-Child South India Resource Group and serve as its Honorary Director, a post that he held till 1999 when the assignment of the Group was completed. The Group, composed of experts in the field, monitored, guided, and provided training for projects funded by the Trust in South India.
Dr. Gautham was instrumental in getting the University of Madras
University of Madras
The University of Madras is a public research university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the three oldest universities in India...
to introduce concessions for students with Learning Disability
Learning disability
Learning disability is a classification including several disorders in which a person has difficulty learning in a typical manner, usually caused by an unknown factor or factors...
in 2004.
The course designed and taught by him at at California Lutheran University, was a trendsetter
Academic Positions
Dr. Gautham is currently Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry at MAP Institute of Medical Sciences and Research. He set up the Department of Mental Health at Raja Muthiah Medical College, Annamalai University in 1988 and the Child Behaviour and Development Clinic in 1989, which received recognition by the World Health OrganizationWorld Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
. The WHO invited him to serve as the sole resource person from India for the WHO Early Childhood Care and Development program in Developing countries from 1993 to 1996.
He has been an academic council member of the Annamalai University
Annamalai University
Annamalai University is a Public University located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The university offers courses of higher education in arts, sciences and engineering.The university also provides around 380 courses under distance mode...
(1993 to 1995), and the autonomous MOP Vaishnav College for Women (2001 to 2005). He has been a member of the Board of studies in Psychology (1993 to 1996), and a planning committee member of the Department of Distance Education at Annamalai University (1992 to 1996). He has served on the doctoral board of the Martin Luther Christian University
Martin Luther Christian University
Martin Luther Christian University was established in July 2005. It is the first full-fledged Christian University in Shillong, the capstone to more than two centuries of Christian education in the country...
(2006 to 2009). The California Lutheran University
California Lutheran University
California Lutheran University is a university of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in Thousand Oaks, California.-Mission statement:The University's mission statement is as follows:...
invited Dr. Gautham as a Visiting Scholar (Professor) in 2007 & 2008.
Qualification
Dr. Gautham graduated in Medicine from the Madras Medical CollegeMadras Medical College
The Madras Medical College is an educational institution located in Chennai, India. It was established on February 2, 1835. It is the oldest medical college in India, along with the Medical College Kolkata.-History:...
, University of Madras
University of Madras
The University of Madras is a public research university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the three oldest universities in India...
in 1980. He then trained for 2 years in Neurology and Psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences and completed his post graduation in Psychiatry from the Institute of Mental Health, Chennai. He holds an MD in Psychiatry, a Diploma in Psychological Medicine, and a Diploma in Child Behavior and Development and has done Doctoral research.
Popular Media Appearance
His popular appearances on a popular local language TV channel to deliver informative tips about mental illness and mental health ran for nearly four years with more than 180 appearances.Dr. Gautham has appeared on National TV alongside prominent personalities. He has also done live phone-in Q & A programs on local TV channels. He has featured in or written articles on mental health issues for various newspapers and magazines including the Times Group, and the Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...