PESHAWAR: Prof Saeed Farooq, a Pakistani psychiatrist, has been selected by National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) for UK’s Global Health Professorship Award.

The NIHR selected seven leading health researchers working in Africa, South America and Asia. The selection process involved a competitive peer review of research plan submitted by applicants from UK and globally, followed by interview by a panel of world leading researchers.

Prof Saeed, a graduate of Khyber Medical College, is the only Pakistani to win the award. A total of seven researchers earned the NIHR global research professorship, the most prestigious and highly competitive award. The awardees also include UK institutions such as King College London, which is among the top 10 universities in the world.

Saeed Farooq is professor of psychiatry and public mental health at School of Medicine, Keele University, and honorary consultant psychiatrist at Midlands Partnership National Health Service Foundation Trust.

During his tenure of research professorship, Saeed Farooq will conduct research on ‘Translating evidence for early intervention in psychosis (Translate) in low and lower-middle countries (LMIC): implementation and evaluation’. As part of this project, he will lead establishing and evaluating a service for young people with psychosis at five sites in Pakistan and one in Sri Lanka.

A native of Swabi and now settled in Haripur, he received higher training in Birmingham, UK, and returned in 1995 to Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), where he established a state-of-the-art psychiatry department.

Prof Saeed, who has to his credit 250 publications in high impact journals, worked for more than a decade at LRH during which the psychiatry unit was recognised by College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP) for postgraduate training. He also established Journal of Pakistan Psychiatric Society (JPPS) and worked as its chief editor for almost a decade.

He completed PhD in mental health in 2012 in UK and joined School of Medicine Keele University, UK, in 2016. He conducted one of the largest trials of a psychological therapy for people in humanitarian context, widely known as PM+ (problem management plus) in Peshawar. The PM+ is now recognised by World Health Organisation (WHO) as standard treatment for people in conflict zone and being used worldwide in similar situations.

He has achieved multi-million pound research funding, which is now supporting world leading research in Pakistan on reducing the treatment gap for severe mental illness. It helps in providing services to people with psychosis.

Prof Saeed is leading one of the largest capacity building programmes in research in mental health in developing countries.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024