The Conversation

Two women in the field of psychiatry discuss the demands and satisfaction that comes from working in Uganda and Pakistan, where there is still a stigma around mental health and mental health professionals. Dr Margaret Mungherera was the first African woman to be elected president of the World Medical Association, a role she held from 2013 until quite recently. Dr Mungherera was one of only six psychiatrists in Uganda when she started out at the country's largest mental health hospital where she says patients were often neglected by both the government and their own families. She helped to change the fortunes of this institution and attitudes towards mental health in Uganda. Dr Unaiza Niaz is also trying to change opinions and beliefs about her profession in Pakistan. "When I decided on psychiatry they thought I'd gone bonkers" she says of her friends and family. Dr Naiz is the former chair of the women's mental health section of the World Psychiatric Association and the founder and president of Pakistan's Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Her work has focused on trauma in Pakistani society caused by terrorism, the effects of the conflict over the border in Afghanistan and of natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes.