Since early 2000, the world has become familiar with the impacts of COVID-19: isolation, mask-wearing, and, for far too many, disease and death.  Dr. Shekhar Saxena says there’s another impact we are just beginning to grapple with: the way the pandemic has affected global mental health.

Saxena is Professor of the Practice of Global Mental Health at the Department of Global Health and Population at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. He served in the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1998 to 2018, and served as the Director of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse from 2010 to 2018.  In 2017, he received the prestigious Leon Eisenberg Award from Harvard Medical School.  Saxena is the author of more than 350 academic papers.  He served as the editor of the Lancet Series on Global Mental Health 2007 and 2011 and the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development 2018.  He advises policymakers on prevention and management of mental, developmental, neurological and substance use disorders and suicide prevention, and is an active contributor to Harvard’s Global Mental Health initiative.