Community mental health / research / rehabilitation
Rooted in Kashmir.
Built to remain beside people.
For more than three and a half decades, SAWAB has connected care, research, education and community action—beginning close to daily life and staying long enough to learn.
- 35+
- years of sustained work
- 5
- connected fields of practice
- 20+
- years following Waltengo Nar
The founder’s legacy
A clinical life carried into community.
Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Margoob founded SAWAB amid acute sociopolitical turmoil and humanitarian crisis in Kashmir, connecting psychiatric practice with community mental health, trauma research, education and public advocacy.
The work began not in formal boardrooms, but in villages, homes, temporary shelters and communities carrying the weight of trauma. Care developed alongside evidence: identifying unmet needs, following communities over time and strengthening clinicians already present in the wider health system.
- Former Professor and Head, Postgraduate Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College Srinagar / IMHANS-K
- Founder, SAWAB
- Chairman, CHINAR International, Kashmir
- Director, Mental Health & Neurorehabilitation Unit, Voluntary Medicare Society
Founding ethic
Scientific without becoming distant; compassionate without becoming sentimental; collaborative without losing clarity of purpose.
Communities equipped to support emotional resilience and holistic wellbeing.
Care, research, education and partnership developed as one continuous practice.
Our journey
A journey of hope, people and impact.
From a simple conversation to a growing movement for mental health.
Different times.
New challenges.
The same belief —
that mental health matters.
The beginning
Seeds of awareness
Where the conversation began.
Knowledge carried forward
Defeat Depression Programme
Bringing knowledge and care to those who needed it.
From individuals to community
Community mental-health programme
Care that reached communities.
A voice becomes visible
Advocacy for mental-health infrastructure
Turning experience into systemic change.
Continuity
A continuing journey
Sustained care, research and a wider impact.
Visual field archive
Three decades on the ground.
Programme records connect the institution’s history to the people, systems and places in which the work unfolded.
1998–2003 · Capacity building
Defeat Depression Programme
Knowledge travelled through medical trainees, frontline doctors and general clinicians when specialist care was scarce.
Open the academic story
Collaborative practice · Rehabilitation
Mental health within recovery
Work with Voluntary Medicare Society brings emotional wellbeing into neurorehabilitation, family support and longer-term participation.
Open the rehabilitation storyIn the public record
The work, held in public memory.
Recent reporting, programme records and archive clippings preserve the changing public conversation around trauma, access, community care and mental-health systems in Kashmir.
Explore the full press archiveWaiting Rooms of the Mind: Mental Health Realities in Kashmir
A reported feature from clinic waiting rooms and community settings on lasting conflict-related trauma, access gaps, helplines and SAWAB's role in care beyond hospital walls.
ClinicalCommunityImpact
Read feature Culture and Psychosocial Trauma
Programme record for Dr. Mushtaq A. Margoob's session on culture and psychosocial trauma at AIIMS New Delhi's Silver Jubilee Post Graduate Development Programme.
ResearchTraumaAcademic
Communities can be empowered through mental-healthcare services
A report on community mental-health infrastructure, early intervention and the role of SAWAB, VMS and partner institutions in widening access.
CommunityRehabilitationPartnership
Conference charts roadmap for community-based mental healthcare
Coverage of a multi-institutional conference on decentralised, culturally relevant and stigma-free mental-health services in Kashmir.
CommunityAcademicAccess
Access to mental healthcare in the community: a milestone initiative
A detailed account of the Srinagar conference that brought clinicians, public-health specialists, community leaders and NGOs into one shared agenda.
CommunityAcademicPartnership
Mental health enters the Urdu public conversation
A regional-language clipping that preserves an important part of Kashmir's public conversation about psychiatric care and mental illness.
CommunityImpactHistory
Psychiatric scenario in Jammu and Kashmir
A wide-ranging interview on stigma, PTSD, substance use, research, professional training and the need for mental-health work to remain a mission.
ClinicalResearchHistory
The ecology of care
One movement. Five connected fields.
Each field has its own discipline. Together they form a continuous route from recognition and care to evidence, learning, community strength and recovery.
01
Clinical
Care that reaches beyond formal psychiatric settings.
Explore field 02Research
Knowledge generated through sustained clinical and community engagement.
Explore field 03Community
Mental health woven into homes, schools and places of belonging.
Explore field 04Academic
Scientific learning made useful to the wider care system.
Explore field 05Rehabilitation
Recovery understood as dignity, agency and participation.
Explore fieldCare before counting
SAWAB’s impact is reflected in sustained programmes, long-term follow-up and care systems strengthened over time.
Knowledge through continuity
Long follow-up periods, repeated community engagement and ongoing medical education connect immediate care with durable learning.
Systems strengthened from within
Training non-psychiatric clinicians and working through existing community institutions expands the reach of informed mental-health care.
People & partnerships
A movement carried by people.
Clinicians and psychologists carry the work across care, research, learning and community life, supported by relationships across health, education and civil society.
01Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Margoob
FounderFounder of SAWAB and a clinician-researcher whose work connects community mental health, trauma research and public advocacy in Kashmir.
Community mental healthTraumaResearch
02Dr. Imtiyaz Mansoor
Sr. Consultant PsychiatristSenior consultant psychiatrist contributing to SAWAB’s clinical practice, community care and institutional learning.
PsychiatryClinical practice
03Dr. Syed Bushra Imtiyaz
Consultant PsychiatristConsultant psychiatrist contributing to clinical care, collaborative learning and mental-health practice.
PsychiatryMental health
04Aeiman Rafiq
Clinical PsychologistClinical psychologist contributing to psychosocial care, emotional wellbeing and community mental health.
Clinical psychologyPsychosocial care
Collaborative network
Medical, academic and community relationships
Each relationship extends care through clinical learning, rehabilitation, education or community support.
Voluntary Medicare SocietyRehabilitationIMHANS-K / GMC SrinagarHealthcare & clinical institutionsDepartment of Psychiatry, SKIMS Medical College BeminaAcademic & researchKashmir Welfare TrustCommunity & civil societyCHINAR InternationalCommunity & civil societyKashmir Care FoundationCommunity learning & public educationEducational institutions across KashmirEducational institutions
The work continues
Because healing is not a moment.
It is a mission.
Explore the research record, understand the fields of work or begin a considered conversation with SAWAB.