Assoc Prof Swapna Kamal Verma

Chairman Medical Board, Institute of Mental Health
Programme Director, CHAT: Centre of Excellence for Youth Mental Health
Associate Professor, Duke-NUS Medical School
Adjunct Associate Professor, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore
Adjunct Associate Professor, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University

Dr. Swapna Verma currently serves as the Chairman of the Medical Board at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and as a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist. In her role, she oversees clinical governance and leads initiatives to enhance mental health services, focusing on early intervention and community health assessment.

Dr. Verma is also the Programme Director of CHAT, a national youth mental health initiative that was funded by MOH. CHAT has adopted several ground-breaking strategies aimed at improving awareness of youth mental health and early treatment access for distressed youths and in recognition of its efforts was awarded the National Medical Excellence Team award in 2022.

Prior to her current role, Dr. Verma was the Senior Consultant & Chief of the Department of Psychosis at IMH. She played a pivotal role in developing and implementing the Early Psychosis Intervention Programme (EPIP), significantly improving patient outcomes and community awareness of mental health issues. EPIP has won prestigious awards including the WHO award for research in health promotion in 2004 as well as the inaugural National Medical Excellence Team award in 2008. As the Chief of Department of Psychosis she helped develop innovative care models for Schizophrenia and spearheaded research in the field of Psychotic Disorders.

She has been actively involved in research, securing grants from NMRC and National Institute of Mental Health, USA for studies on mental health. She has more than 200 publications in peer-reviewed journals including high-impact publications in Lancet, Molecular Psychiatry and JAMA Psychiatry. Additionally, she has been instrumental in training the next generation of psychiatrists through her academic roles at Duke-NUS Medical School and YLL NUS Medical School. She is also a National Examiner for the Singapore Board Exams in Psychiatry. She is the recipient of the Duke-NUS Outstanding Educator award in 2009, the NHG Outstanding Leader in Education award in 2012 and the IMH Clinical Mentorship award in 2016.

Her contributions extend to serving on several national committees focused on mental health policy and education, advocating for improved mental health services and awareness in Singapore.