Middle East Psychological Association (MEPA) will launch its Qatar chapter today at Hamad Bin Khalifa University Student Centre.
MEPA Qatar Chapter Director Tina Balachandran (pictured), told The Peninsula that MEPA aims to be a resource for the Middle East community, providing educational resources, destigmatizing the practice of psychology, and enabling an ethical code of practice in the region. “Our mandate is Public Protection, Public Awareness, Professional Development, Peer Support, and Peer Oversight. “
The establishment came after the need to have a comprehensive organisation focused on promoting and supporting excellence in the practice of psychology. “We have over 150 registered practitioners in the field of psychology across Qatar, yet we all work in isolation. As mental health practitioners, we need to come together to grow and make a difference in the community for both the service providers and the consumers of our services,” she explained.
MEPA will support the ongoing professional development activities in the form of workshops, training, professional development and public information for consumers of mental health resources and professionals. Moreover, Tina Balachandran said: “The public will be able to greatly benefit from having a strong psychology community. We are extremely passionate about providing access and equity in mental health care and wellbeing. We hope to be able to offer the public more educational opportunities to best serve the community through a lens of cultural sensitivity and evidence based approaches to psychological care and well-being. We are committed to providing exceptional services to the community and are keen to develop partnerships with various local community organisations to nurture an inclusive community for accessible mental health care with MEPA.”
Today’s launching will have a special lecture by Dr. Omar Mahmood, PhD. He is the Acting Clinical Director of Psychology under the Department of Psychiatry at Sidra Medicine and Assistant Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College.
Dr. Mahmood will be addressing a key topic in the field of mental health followed by a question and answer portion. A ‘Mindfulness session’ will then take place with Chahnaz Baroudi, PhD student, LCP as the speaker, also the Treasurer of MEPA Qatar Chapter. The main topic on this event is “Growing Together” – nurturing child and adolescent mental health. It will be held at HBKU Student Centre in Education City at 6:30pm.
MEPA Qatar Chapter Team is composed of Tina as the Director who has over 15 years of experience which spans across clinical, aviation, and workplace psychology and Sobia Agha as the Secretary who is an experienced Psychologist, Wellness Educator, and International Mental Health Researcher. Baroudi is the Treasurer of the Qatar country chapter. She is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and president of the Lebanese Psychological Association.
