President
World Psychiatric Association
As President of the World Psychiatric Association, Dinesh's Action Plan was on social discrimination against people with mental illness but also those who are underserved e.g. LGBT+ individuals, migrants, elderly and those intellectual disabilities and set up Presidential Task Forces on developing undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education curricula and policy documents, specifically calling out the need for inclusion and highlighting the additional challenges faced by those who are LGBT+. For the first time ever the organisation has taken a major step by releasing a position statement on LGBT+ mental health with very clear recommendations that there is no place for conversion therapy. Previously, as President of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dinesh sponsored LGBT+ causes, raised awareness in organisation-wide, national and international press and also mentored a wide range of staff, psychiatrists and medical students. He also sits on many panels in medical bodies advocating for both LGBT+ rights and the difficulties faced by other minority groups, to ensure the challenges faced by these groups are not forgotten and that they have positive role models. Outside of his role, Dinesh drafted a Bill of Rights for the World Psychiatry Association, which was backed by 60 not only UK and US but international organisations including Mind, the Mental Health Foundation and Beating Blue from Australia, but also mental health organisations from areas where LGBT+ people still face significant discrimination in terms of their legal standing and healthcare. He has contributed to the UK LGBT Archive and his features in various publications such as the Guardian and the Telegraph, are considered to be all the more impactful given that his standing as an LGBT+ person in India would be illegal.