Professor Sandeep Grover is the author of 975 research articles and is listed in the world’s top two per cent in the Stanford list of researchers – for the last three years. He has delivered close to 300 lectures and been involved in training postgraduate students of psychiatry for the last 20 years.

Yet, he is happy to admit that he came to Australia, and Northern Health, “with a little bit of nervous anticipation and excitement. It was like stepping into a new chapter of life.”

Professor Grover came to us from the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, where he has been serving as Professor of Psychiatry for the last seven years.

“While he is working clinically, he will also support us in the areas of research and education,” says Associate Professor Vinay Lakra, Divisional Director, Mental Health.

“We are obviously very excited about Sandeep joining us. It provides us an excellent opportunity to enhance our research credentials and also to translate research to clinical practice for the benefit of our patients and their families,” he adds.

“My interest in research has been fuelled by the clinical issues faced by clinicians and the needs of clients and significant others involved in their care,” says Prof. Grover.

His primary areas of research have been severe mental disorders, especially treatment-resistant schizophrenia, the role of the family in the management of mental disorders, consultation-liaison psychiatry, psychopharmacology, and geriatric psychiatry.

The role of the family is one that Prof. Grover has been studying closely. “Our research suggest that the family caregivers, experience significant caregiver burden, at the same time also have positive caregiving experience. In the whole process of caregiving, the caregivers themselves also experience psychological morbidity.”

He comes from a work culture, “that is overwhelmed by the patient load and where we are trained to find solutions within the resource constraints. This often allows us to think outside of the box and find solutions that are practical and cost-effective.”

Bellinda Scott, Executive Director, Mental Health is delighted to welcome Professor Grover to our service at Northern Health. She says, “We look forward to the mutual benefits of sharing research, education and clinical practice knowledge.”