About speakers:

Ms. Arati Jha is a parent of the child with autism. A nurse by educational background, she has received taken parent training from Autism Care Nepal Society.

Dr Gunjan Dhonju is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Kanti Children’s Hospital. He completed MBBS and MD psychiatry from Kathmandu University, followed by a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from NIMHANS, Banglore, India. The area of his interests are Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH), and Community Projects on CAMH.

Dr Rena Shrestha is a lecturer at the Department of Psychology, Padma Kanya Campus, Tribhuvan University and consultant psychologist at Autism Care Nepal Society. She was an Australia Awards Scholar (2015-2019) at School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Australia, and completed her PhD with a focus on the implementation of community-based developmental monitoring to promote early identification and diagnosis of autism in Nepal. She has extensive experience in the psychological assessment, diagnosis and intervention of children and adolescents with developmental disabilities including autism, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, ADHD and learning problems. She divides her time between teaching, clinical practice, training/consulting and research.