On November 2014, Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation in collaboration with INCIDIN and The Daily Star arranged a round table session with Mental Health experts to discuss the Mental Health Act 2014 proposed for public vetting by the Law Commission. A wide range of service users, service providers, academicians, civil society organization, media and policy makers were present in this roundtable session to share their opinions. The goal of the roundtable was organized to try and identify the ambiguities of the proposed Act and recommend how it could be improved further to ensure universal mental health coverage and mental health equity. The aim of the roundtable was to discuss how to bring mental health services to the doorstep of general people and overcome the general stigma associated to the topic.
The participants of the roundtable were A.K.M Mustaque Ali, Executive director of INCIDIN Bangladesh, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, Managing Director of The Daily Star, Monowar Ahmed, Chairperson of Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation, Professor Dr. Golam Rabbani, Psychiatrist and Chair of Neuro Development and Protection Trust, Professor Dr. Waizul Ahmed Chowdhury, Director of National Institute for Mental Health and General Secretary of Bangladesh Association of Psychiatrists, Khondoker Shahriar Shakir, Advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court, Professor Shaheen Islam, Chairperson of Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, University of Dhaka, Kamaluddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Associate Professor of Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Dhaka, Badrul Mannan, Joint Secretary, Welfare Society for Mental Health and Rehabilitation, Hasan Mohammad Arifur Rahman, Senior Assistant Judge and Research Officer at Law Commission, Dr. M Mostafa Zaman, National Professional Officer (Non-Communicable Disease), WHO, Tariqul Islam, Secretary at Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and Monira Rahman, Founder and Executive Director of Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation
