People and governance
Careif was founded by Professor Kamaldeep Bhui and Dr Albert Persaud having earlier set up a similar organisation with the University of Auckland in 2001. All our Trustees and Associates give their time as volunteers.
Our trustees
Rachel Tribe
Professor Rachel Tribe is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Her national and international consultancy and training has included the British Psychological Society (BPS), (British) Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Department of Education, the Department of Health (DH) the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and many other national and international organisations.
Koravangattu Valsraj
Dr Valsraj is a Consultant Psychiatrist based in London; he has held various senior medical leadership roles both in United Kingdom and India. He has varied experience in systems leadership, interdisciplinary working and has established international collaborations to promote best practice, faculty exchange, sharing knowledge across disciplines and international borders.
Afzal Javed
Professor Afzal Javed OBE is a Consultant Psychiatrist and an Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham. Among many other roles, he was the immediate Past President of the World Psychiatric Assocation and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Professor Javed describes his role at Careif as an exciting and rewarding position for supporting mental health.
Genevieve Grimshaw
Genevieve joins Careif with over thirty years of experience working across the private, public and charity sectors. Her considerable experience gained as a governance professional and Company Secretary will see her bring a broad range of skills to Careif’s Board of Trustees.
Our patrons
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Sir Anand Satyanand became a Patron of Careif in 2006. He is a New Zealander whose family origins lie in India and Fiji.
He is currently Chairman of the Commonwealth Foundation, the people’s organisation counterpart to the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Foundation’s remit is to advance the wishes and needs of civil society. It does in support of cultural items such as the Commonwealth Lecture and Commonwealth Short Story competition as well as underpinning People’s Forums in advance of Commonwealth Ministers’ meetings such as CHOGM.
In professional roles before the present, Sir Anand practised law, worked as a judge, and then undertook two terms as a parliamentary ombudsman. He served as New Zealand’s Governor-General from 2006 until 2011. In between he has maintained a long term adjectival interest in mental health having chaired a Confidential Forum for Former In-Patients of Psychiatric Hospitals in New Zealand and in presently chairing a trust which delivers mental health services.
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Lord Victor Olufemi Adebowale (Baron Adebowale) CBE, became a Patron of Careif in 2006. He is Chief Executive of Turning Point, the health and social care not for profit business providing services to individuals with a learning disability, mental health and substance misuse difficulties.
He is a Visiting Professor and Chancellor at the University of Lincoln. In 2000, Victor was awarded the CBE for services to the New Deal, the unemployed and homeless young people. In 2001 he was appointed a cross-bench member of the House of Lords.
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Dr Tony Gardner became a Patron of Careif in 2006. Tony is an English actor and doctor. He trained with Professor Kamaldeep Bhui (Careif’s Co-Founder) qualified as a doctor at Guy’s Hospital in 1987, then as a General Practitioner in 1993.
He combined medicine and comedy during the 1990s as half of the award-winning comedy duo Struck Off and Die, with Dr Phil Hammond. He eventually left medicine to become an actor and is best known for his role in My Parents are Aliens, (episodes of which he also wrote) and Michael, the café owner in Jack Dee’s BBC sitcom Lead Balloon.
In 2009-10 he starred in three plays directed by Sir Peter Hall. In 2011 he played Professor Tony Shales in Channel 4 series Fresh Meat, also played Lieutenant Colonel Phillip Smith in Bluestone 42, after appearing as Dan Miller MP in the BBC political comedy The Thick of It.
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Professor Bhugra was a Founder Trustee of Careif in 2006. He is Professor Emeritus of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London. He is also an Honorary Consultant at the Maudsley Hospital, where he runs the sexual and couple therapy clinic.
His research interests are in cultural psychiatry, sexual dysfunction and service development. He has authored/co-authored over 500 scientific papers, chapters and 40 books. He published Mad Tales from Bollywood: Portrayal of Madness in Conventional Hindi Cinema in 2006. His recent volumes include Principles of Social Psychiatry, Mental Health of Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Highly Commended in the 2011 BMA Awards), Migration and Mental Health, Textbook of Cultural Psychiatry (Commended in the BMA Book Awards in 2008 and recipient of the 2012 Creative Scholarship Award from the Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture), Culture and Mental Health and Management for Psychiatrists. His Practical Cultural psychiatry was also commended in BMA Book Awards in 2019 . In the same year his Oxford Textbook of Public Mental Health was awarded Psychiatry Book of the Year by the BMA. His latest volume is Oxford Textbook of Social Psychiatry. Several of his books have been translated into Chinese and Japanese.
Professor Bhugra is the Editor of the International Journal of Social Psychiatry and International Review of Psychiatry. He has also developed teaching modules and short courses for medical students and psychiatric trainees on Cultural Psychiatry and on Cinema and Psychiatry. Professor Bhugra was President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2008-2011), Chair of the Mental Health Foundation (2011-2014), President of the World Psychiatric Association (2014-2017) and President of the British Medical Association (2018-2019). He was the first British person (Psychiatrist) to be President of the World Psychiatric Association. He is on the editorial board of over 20 journals and visiting Professorships in 5 institutions internationally. He has received several honours from universities. In 2012 New Years Honours, he was awarded a CBE by Her Majesty the Queen.
Our Associates
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Dr Mariam Bhaila is a Counselling Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and a member of the British Psychological Society (BPS). She holds a Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology, where her research explored young British Pakistani men’s experiences of help-seeking when distressed.
She has worked across both inpatient and community NHS services, with a particular focus on trauma-informed care and culturally sensitive practice. Dr Bhaila is passionate about addressing inequalities in mental health and has delivered professional training nationally and internationally.
She is delighted to join Careif as an Associate and looks forward to contributing to its mission of improving global mental health and wellbeing.
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Keith is the Digital Transformation Manager at the Royal College of Psychiatrists and has extensive experience in digital communications, having formerly worked at The Institute of Cancer Research as their Digital Strategy Manager.
Prior to his communications career, Keith had 20 years of experience as a genomics researcher, with an emphasis on helping build and develop bioinformatics software and services.
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Anselm is a solicitor and an associate at Doughty Street Chambers. He was a full-time Judge of the Court of Protection until July 2024. He is also an Honorary Professor of Mental Health and Mental Capacity Law at Queen's University Belfast and a legal columnist for the Morning Star newspaper.
In 2019, he was awarded a Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year Special Award. For many years he was President of both national mental health law associations. In September 2024, he published European Court of Human Rights and Mental Health (Bloomsbury, 1301 pages), which Ledi Bianku (a former ECHR judge) reviewed recently as a ‘masterpiece’. His main areas of interest are human rights law, mental health and capacity law, legal aid and legal reform projects. -
Dr Farkhondeh (Farah) is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS). She is also registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).
Farah has extensive experience working with refugees, asylum seekers and migrant communities in secondary and tertiary settings in the NHS since the 1990s.
Farah is passionate about and has contributed writings on the experiences of culturally diverse clients in therapy, the impact of ethnicity on therapeutic processes and outcomes, as well as the considerations necessary when working with refugee and asylum-seeking populations and interpreters in mental health.
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Elaahe is a qualified solicitor of England and Wales and is currently Legal Counsel at a video game company.
She has contributed to presentations and running stalls at conferences for a number of charities and organisations working with refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants, helping to raise awareness of the challenges they face while settling in the UK.
She has offered to assist in updating and uploading resources for CARE, ensuring that the information available on the platform is up to date, accurate, and easily accessible to users.
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Aspa is an Apprentice Clinical Associate in Psychology, employed by the NHS in an Adult Mental Health service.
She has previously worked as a Graduate Mental Health worker in Enfys, a developmental trauma service for children who are looked after.
She has advised on Careif’s social media work and website and is conducting a literature search for the UK Indo-Carribean project.
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Emily is currently studying Psychology as an undergraduate student at the University of Reading. She is primarily interested in Clinical Psychology and hopes to one day work within mental health.
She has assisted with various Careif training events and projects and intends to help with more in the future.
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Gašper Kosič is a psychology graduate from the University of Maribor, Slovenia, where he distinguished himself through active involvement in research and student advocacy. As the inaugural local coordinator of the European Federation of Psychology Students Associations’ Better Together campaign in Slovenia, he demonstrated strong leadership and a commitment to fostering inclusive environments. His primary research interests focus on clinical psychology, with a particular emphasis on minority mental health, especially within sexual and gender minority populations. Gašper is dedicated to advancing equity and mental well-being through science, advocacy, and cross-cultural collaboration.
Careif
Careif is a charitable company limited by guarantee and incorporated in England and Wales under number 06231733. It is registered with the Charity Commission under number 1121374.
The registered office of Careif is at Victoria Court, 17-21 Ashford Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 5DA.