Smriti Rana

Director - Programmes at Pallium India, Head of Policy Advocacy (India)

Smriti Rana is trained in Integrative and Holistic Psychological Counselling. She began her work in palliative care in the year 2000, after losing several family members in one year to protracted illnesses marked by the conspicuous absence of pain relief.

She heads the Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Community Engagement Division at Pallium India ( https://palliumindia.org/ ), a national registered charitable Trust formed in 2003 that strives to alleviate health-related suffering. The organization demonstrates, educates and advocates for the integration of palliative care into mainstream healthcare.

Smriti leads programs ranging from Central government engagement and international advocacy for balanced access to essential opioid analgesics, gender-equity in access to palliative care, advocacy skill-building for people with lived experience, appropriate end of life care, and palliative care in humanitarian settings.

Smriti has led the development and implementation of psychosocial training sessions at Pallium India since 2012 for medical and allied healthcare professionals, as well as for community members.

Through the Trivandrum Institute of Palliative Sciences (Pallium India’s flagship program), a WHO Collaborating Centre for Training and Policy on Access to Pain Relief, Smriti works closely with the WHO SEARO to scale up palliative care services in the region. She has been a spokesperson at the WHO and Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) Roundtable on Cervical Cancer; has represented the civil society perspective at the annual World Drug Report event hosted by the Vienna NGO Committee (VNGOC) and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC), and is part of international expert groups working on access to Internationally Controlled Essential Medicines for pain relief.

Smriti has moderated several expert panels on topics including grief and bereavement, and the role of palliative care in Universal Health Coverage and has been a speaker at the TISS annual Clairvoyance meet. She has been guest faculty for three consecutive years at Dartmouth University’s Global Health Care Foundations sessions, where she has addressed pre-medical students on topics centered around palliative care, humanizing pharmaceutical practices in developing countries, the impact of the pandemic on marginalized communities, the impact on children, and innovative responses in healthcare during the pandemic.

ABSTRACT

‍

Grief is a universal experience and every culture has its own rituals associated with mourning and loss. However, the pandemic has brought a seismic shift in the way grief is experienced, expressed and adapted to. For many, it is now compounded with trauma. Prolonged Grief Disorder has been added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, as experts predict a wave of severe bereavement because of the pandemic. Preliminary studies suggest that around 7% of those in mourning are affected, although the real number is likely to be higher.

In such a context, it becomes relevant and vital for all those associated with mental health to understand grief as a healthy response as well as its pathological manifestations.

This session seeks to provide an introductory overview to various aspects of grief and bereavement.

Learning outcomes:

At the end of the session, practitioners will be able to:

· Understand different frameworks of grief, and how it is expressed

· Identify anticipatory, complicated and disenfranchised grief

· Distinguish between grief and depression

· Learn do’s and don’ts while speaking with grieving clients

· Understand the relationship between attachment styles and grief

· Understand how children experience grief and what to bear in mind when dealing with grieving children,

· Learn the basics of providing bereavement support

12:00 PM - 1:00PM IST

Other speakers

Ma. Subramanian

Minister for Health and Family Welfare of Tamil Nadu

Special Guest: Inaugural Address

Inauguration Special Guests

Click here for more nformation

Dr Shruthi and Pooja Nair

Queer Affirmative Practises

Ms Pooja Nair

Mariwala Health Initiative

Queer Affirmative Counseling Practice

Dr Shruti Chakravarty

Chief Advisor at Mariwala Health Initiative (MHI)

Queer Affirmative Counseling Practice

Jon Sperry, Ph.D

Lynn University (USA)

Culturally Responsive Case conceptualization

Ms Lindsay Turner

Barry University (USA)

Lindsay Turner, MS is clinical mental health counselor. She works in a private practice in Florida and received her MS at Lynn University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate at Barry University.

Toni Knight

Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), Graduate Diploma in Applied Psychology (awarded with Distinction), Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Strategic Psychotherapy.

From Compassion fatigue to Compassionate Presence

Dr Nadine Pelling BA (Hon.), MA, PhD

Clinical Psychologist

Senior Lecturer – Clinical Psychology/Counselling & Interpersonal Skills - UniSA: Justice and Society

Paper Presentations

Dr Jan Sky

Neuropsychotherapist; Supervisor; Educator (Australia)

Brain Potential, Leadership Powered by Neuroscience - Jan is a graduate of Applied Neuroscience and uses her understanding of brain function applying this knowledge to enhance leadership applications and outcomes.

Dr Sumathi Narayanan

President of Creative Communication and Management Center, Chennai

Panel Moderator - Ph. D in HUMAN DEVELOPMENT, Department of Psychology, University of Madras

Masooma Mahtabi

United Nation Department of Safety and Security (Afganistan)

Bachelor’s Degree from Kabul University, Faculty of Psychology and Education, my master’s degree in Applied Psychology, specialization in counseling

Dr Nivedita Chalill

Courageous Compassion | Applying Buddhist Psychology to a Contemporary Context

Nivedita is the founder of ARTH (2014), a mental health initiative that offers Counselling and Arts Based Therapy services for people dealing with Mental health issues.

Sibylle Cseri

BFA (Univ. of New Mexico, USA), M.A. Art Psychotherapy (Univ. of Barcelona, Spain), art therapist, lecturer and supervisor based in Barcelona, Spain

WORKING WITH CREATIVE PROCESS' IN ART THERAPY TREATMENT

David ‘Bhakti’ Gotlieb

M.App.Sci.Crit.Psych. Grad Dip Social Ecology, ACA College of Supervision (Australia)

Precision in Counselling - linking Healing Inner Conflict (HIC) to Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Compassionate Inquiry (Dr Gabor Maté)...

Dr Stephani Stephens

Jungian oriented psychotherapist and a lecturer in Counselling at the University of Canberra (Australia)

Broaching: How we support our clients to talk about Race

Christian Henrichs

Dipl.-Psych. (Bonn, D), M.Phil. (Bristol, UK), psychological psychotherapist (LPA Hesse)

The Capacity to Deal with Cultural Diversity from the Perspective of Positive Psychotherapy

Aparna Joshi

Tata Institute of Social Sciences TISS (India)

Panel Moderator - Assistant Professor with the School of Human Ecology

Matthew Povey

Trauma Therapist and Supervisor at Riverina Counselling (Australia)

Matthew Povey is a Social Worker, Counselor and Clinical Supervisor with over 10 years experience in trauma, personality issues and complex illness with adults and children