Member Spotlight: Adeel Shareef

2 November 2024

This conversation is part of our TRC Member Spotlight series. We had the pleasure of speaking with Adeel Shareef, a valued TRC member and medical doctor who currently serves as the Director of Strategy and Innovation at ADK Hospital in the Maldives. TRC Community manager, Shilpa Sadanand, interacted with Adeel in November 2024. The following are excerpts from their interaction.

Welcome Adeel, we are glad to have you share your story and perspectives with the TRC community, thank you! Please tell us a bit about yourself?

I am a medical doctor based in Maldives where I currently work as Director, Strategy and Innovation for ADK Hospitals. I am also the Co-founder and Vice President of Mission for Migrant Workers Maldives (MMWM), a non-profit I co-founded with the aim of addressing inequities faced by migrant workers in accessing health services.

All Images courtesy of Adeel Shareef

Describe some of the work you have been undertaking in the field of mental health and resilience?

My work and active involvement in the field of mental health and resilience began during my postgraduate studies at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia. I trained as a Mental Health First Aid provider and worked as a peer educator for mental and sexual health with the UNSW Health Promotions Unit. This experience allowed me to engage with student communities and view mental health from a broader context of cultural, professional, and sexual diversity.

According to you, how can one develop one’s or a team’s resilience?

In my opinion, team’s resilience-building starts with creating an environment of open, honest communication where team members feel safe to voice challenges and share honest feedback. This foundation enables them to tackle obstacles together, learn from setbacks, and develop shared solutions which ultimately strengthen the team’s ability to bounce back from challenges.

Could you share a common resilience practice that you or your team regularly follow?

At MMWM, I lead a team of mostly volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical students, and community health workers in the execution of our mobile health camps which are often fast-paced due to time constraints and high volume of participants. During the course of the health camp, I do regular “energy check-ins” with members of the team and I ALSO get checked-on by other teammates. This allows us the opportunity to have a moment to reflect on what is going well and what isn’t and allows a brief moment to re-strategize if needed.

What is your most useful tip you use to inspire patients or colleagues or teammates?

A useful tip I regularly offer colleagues (and myself) is to take a brief pause which can include a short walk, deep (and mindful) breaths or just stepping “outside”. These small breaks help us to come back stronger.

How did you become involved with The Resilience Collaborative (TRC)?

I got involved with TRC as an intern as part of my Master of Global Health/Master of Health Leadership and Management (MGH/MHLM) program earlier in 2024 while in Australia. This was a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) opportunity and allowed me to work with TRC team in India (remotely) in contributing to their research and CoP development.

What are your aspirations as a member of this community of practice (COP), TRC?

My aspirations from this CoP and TRC is to contribute to developing tools and resources aimed at best practices for resilience-building among our health workforce. I believe that engagement with members of this CoP is useful in understanding how best to future-proof our teams for challenges ahead.

Are there specific aspects of the TRC community that you find most rewarding or enjoyable?

Following my active engagement with TRC, I have found the regular newsletters to be useful in following updates, new research and learning about other members in the CoP.

Could you share some helpful tips or advice for individuals who are new to the TRC?

TRC is built on community, collaboration and engagement. Together, we can leverage our expertise and lived experiences towards ensuring that we are better prepared for challenges faced by our health systems that include climate change and changing disease patterns.

Any message you'd like to convey?

I look forward to engaging and connecting with other members of the community to understand best practices, review resilience-building tools and resources, and explore avenues for collaboration. You can find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adeelshareef/

We are thankful to Adeel for sharing his journey with us! If you have questions for Adeel or would like to connect with him, please send us a message, and we will be happy to connect you! Also, if you’d like to be featured on this spotlight series or you’d like to nominate someone, please write to us: TRC.Community@georgeinstitute.org