Professor Melanie Abas is a renowned academic in Global Mental Health at King's College London, leading the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience's Health Service & Population Research department. She is Director of the King’s Global Health Institute since 2023 and co-directs the African Youth in Mind initiative. Her work focuses on scalable mental health interventions, particularly in low-resource settings, including the Friendship Bench program in Zimbabwe. She has pioneered culturally adapted therapies for depression and HIV/AIDS care, emphasizing equitable partnerships with African researchers. Key contributions include adapting interventions for youth mental health in Ghana and Zimbabwe, and the TENDAI study addressing HIV medication adherence. Her research spans over £2.75m in UKRI funding and collaborations with international institutions like the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She advises global health bodies such as the Wellcome Trust and MRC Applied Global Health Board. Education: Medical training at University of Birmingham, MSc Epidemiology at LSHTM, PhD from University of Auckland. Research Interests: Task-shifted therapies, youth mental health, HIV integration, and global health equity. Grants: £2.75m NIHR funding for African Youth in Mind; TENDAI study ($4m NIMH). Capacity Building: Leads African Mental Health Research Initiative, fostering researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. Her work has influenced UK policy on human trafficking survivors and shaped global mental health frameworks. She co-edited special issues on HIV and mental health, and her research on the Friendship Bench has been globally implemented.
