Our consultants have spent more than two decades helping build it — through institutions, workforces, policies, and the clinical programs that serve real communities.
Substance use disorders are rising globally. Every region is adapting its response. Across the GCC and wider Middle East, governments and institutions are expanding and modernizing theirs — designing new services, developing specialist workforces, advancing policy, and building the frameworks that meet international standards while reflecting local realities.
It's ambitious work. The expertise required is specific. For nearly three decades, our consultants have been part of that work — contributing to the institutional architecture, the clinical programs, and the reforms that have shaped one of the region's most advanced national responses.
We bring that experience to governments, hospitals, and organizations building theirs.
DCHP brings together consultants who have spent their careers in addiction and mental health — building national services, shaping policy, developing curricula, training workforces, and advancing the field in peer-reviewed research.
We've been working together for more than two decades. The core disciplines are deliberately broad: clinical psychology, addiction psychiatry, pharmacology, and public health medicine. Beyond the core team, we operate through a collaborative model — assembling project teams from a network of distinguished national and international specialists, matched to the expertise each engagement requires.
We work where the combination of specialist expertise and regional understanding is most useful. The Gulf and wider Middle East is our home. Our work extends from there.
Dr. Hamad Al Ghafri and Dr. Shamil Wanigaratne.
President, ISAM · Founder & CEO
Public health physician. MBBS, MPH, PhD. Former Director General of the UAE's National Rehabilitation Centre (2008–2022). President of ISAM. Advisor on Psychiatry to WHO Eastern Mediterranean.
Founder and CEO of DCHP. Sheikh Rashid Award for Science and Culture (2003, 2014).
Clinical Psychologist · WHO Expert
Over 20 years in workforce development across mental health and addiction. Curriculum development with King's College London and UAE University. Board member, Phoenix Futures.
WHO registered expert · UNODC consultant · 50+ peer-reviewed publications.
Addictionologist · Strategist
Research-led specialist in psychoactive substances and pharmacological treatment. Contributed to the development of the UAE's National Rehabilitation Centre. PhD, King's College London.
Board-certified in Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy. Trained by UNODC and WHO.
Addictions Psychiatrist
Three decades in addiction psychiatry. Seventeen years of consultant leadership at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Service planning and clinical management expertise.
Board member, Phoenix Futures · UK Care Quality Commission Special Advisor.
Designing, establishing, and operationalizing addiction and mental health services from the ground up — from architectural brief through clinical pathway, staffing, and regulatory approval.
Training, clinical supervision, capacity building, and curriculum design. Certified delivery of international frameworks alongside bespoke programs built for your workforce's actual needs.
National and organizational policy development. Situation analysis. Strategic planning. The structural work of translating international evidence into locally grounded systems.
Program evaluation, quality improvement, and evidence-base development — including dedicated research support for clinical trials, health services research, and outcome measurement.
Dual diagnosis (concurrent mental health and substance use disorders) and prevention — both often under-resourced across the region, and both areas where our combined experience is directly applicable.
President of ISAM. WHO registered experts. UNODC specialist consultants. Colombo Plan accredited curricula. These are not brand affiliations — they reflect roles and accreditations held by individual team members.
We respond to every enquiry within two business days. All communications are treated as strictly confidential.