Prof Asha Banu Soletti | Tata Institute of Social Sciences

Prof Asha Banu Soletti

Dean - Students' Affairs and Placements, Director's Office
Professor,
Mumbai Campus, Centre for Health and Mental Health, School of Social Work - Mumbai Campus

Qualification

M.A., Ph.D. (Madras)

Contact

ashabanu[at]tiss[dot]edu

ashabanu@tiss.edu

+91 22 25525465

Dr. Asha Banu Soletti is currently Professor at the Centre for Health and Mental Health, School of Social Work (SSW), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She is also the Dean, Student's Affairs, TISS. She was the Chairperson of the Centre for Health and Mental Health (CHMH), SSW, from 2012 to 2018. She teaches Master's level courses in Public Health and Mental Health. Her research projects and field engagements focuses on understanding, evolving and strengthening interventions addressing the social determinants of health, with special focus on marginalised communities. Her field engagement includes co-constructing community-led interventions for emerging public health concerns in both urban and rural contexts. Presently, she leads Pragati: Integrated Rural Health and Development Project, a Field Action Project, which is located in a tribal belt and caters to the health needs of the Warli and Katkari tribes. She has published on specific issues concerning older adults that explores inequities in later life, elder abuse and ageism. She has actively responded and contributed to the disaster relief work operations of the Institute.
During Dr. Soletti's leadership with the CHMH, she spearheaded the forging of academic partnership between TISS and The Banyan, Chennai. She also facilitated the formalising of the agreement between TISS and INHS-Asvini to offer the M.Phil. programme in Psychiatric Social Work.
She was awarded the Linnaeus-Palme Fellowship to visit and teach at the Gothenburg University, Sweden, in 2012. She also serves in Institutional Review Board (IRB) of many organisations. She is actively involved in training and capacity building, monitoring and evaluation in the Public Health domain, and has several peer-reviewed publications to her credit.

ORCiD id:

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1787-9827

Scopus id:

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55205111300

Social Determinants of Health and Mental Health

Community Health and Community Mental Health Practice

Community engagement in Public Health

Mental Health Literacy; School Mental Health

Aging and Elder Abuse; Diversity in later life

Iyer, Chetana, and Asha Banu Soletti. "Lived Experiences of Adult Burn Survivors with Post-Burn Contractures." Social Work in Public Health (2021): 1-15.
Guilamo-Ramos V, Thimm-Kaiser M, Benzekri A, Hidalgo A, Lanier Y, Tlou S, López MD, Soletti AB, Hagan H. (2021). Nurses at the frontline of public health emergency preparedness and response: lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS pandemic and emerging infectious disease outbreaks. The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Soletti, A. B., & Laavanya, P. V. (2020). Revered or Abused: Exploring Reasons for Abuse Within Family from the Narratives of Three Elderly Women in Chennai. In Ageing Issues and Responses in India (pp. 221-234). Springer, Singapore.
Sarode, S., Naik, N. M., & Soletti, A. B. (2020). Assessment of Healthcare Utilisation among Nepali Migrants Living with HIV/AIDS in Mumbai, India. Demography India, 49(1), 69-77.
Rodrigues,R., Yadav,P., & Soletti. A.B. (2020). Implications of COVID-19 and mental health response in tribal padas, Aghai, Journal of Mental Health Education, Special Edition on Covid 19 and Mental Health.
Soletti, A. B. (2020). Greying Population and Growing Disparities Challenges and Opportunities for Gerontological Social Work in India. The Indian Journal of Social Work, 81(1), 5-16.
Bhatia, P., & Soletti, A. B. (2018). Hushed Voices: Views and Experiences of Older Women on Partner Abuse in Later Life. Ageing International, 1-16.
Khole, C. V., & Soletti, A. (2018). Nutritional Status of Elderly in the Old Age Homes: A Study in Pune City. Current Research in Nutrition and Food Science Journal, 6(1), 234-240.
Sunil D. Santha, Sowmya Balasubramaniam, Anup Shenai, Asha Banu Soletti, Sharvan Verma, Jaydip Solanki, Rupali Gaikawad (2018). Climate Justice, Capabilities and Sustainable Livelihoods: Insights from an Action Research Project, in L. Dominelli et al., (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Green Social Work, London: Routledge, p. 267 - 277.
Sunil D. Santha, Sowmya Balasubramaniam, Asha Banu Soletti (2017) Interfaces in Social Innovation: An Action Research Story on a Tribal Women's Collective, Glocalism: Journal of Culture, Politics and Innovation, (2017)3, Accessible at http://www.glocalismjournal.net/issues/beyond-democracy-innovation-as-politics/articles/interfaces-in-social-innovation-an-action-research-story-on-a-tribal-women-s-collective.kl
Soletti, A. B., & Bhatia, P. (2018). Creating Conducive Spaces for Elder Abuse Interventions: Perceptions of Health-Care Professionals. In Abuse and Neglect of the Elderly in India (pp. 201-216). Springer, Singapore.
Soletti, A.B, Nadkarni, V (2017). Resistance to Renaissance-Integrated Rural Health and Development Project, The Indian Journal of Social Work, 78(2), 255-270
Joseph, J., Soletti, A. B., & Basumatary, K. (2017). Conflict and mental health: the experiences of people living with mental illness and disability amidst ongoing conflict. International Journal of Emergency Management, 13(3), 235-251.
Rawat S, Patankar P, Soletti AB, Ekstrand M, Rosser BR, & Wilkerson JM (June 5, 2017).The ISHKonnect Study: Internet-based HIV prevention LGBT. Healthcare Executive (India).
Ekstrand, M. L., Rawat, S., Patankar, P., Heylen, E., Banu, A., Rosser, B. S., & Wilkerson, J. M. (2017). Sexual identity and behavior in an online sample of Indian men who have sex with men. AIDS care, 29(7), 905-913.
Soletti, Asha Banu (2017). Leaving no one behind: Building an agenda for older persons in India.ICSW Global Cooperation Newsletter, 2017, 2-6.
Burnette, D., Soletti, A.B & Sridhar, R (2015) . Stress, Social Support and SWB of older adults in Mumbai, The Indian Journal of Social Work, 76(3), 351-372.
Soletti, A.B. (2012). Adding Life to Days: Counseling as a Tool to Promote Quality of Life of the Greying Population. In A. Ponnuswamy and Y. Vijila (Eds.), Professional Counseling with Social Work Implications, Coimbatore: Zageer Huussain Publications.
Soletti, A.B. & Nadkarni, V. (2012) Children and HIV: A resource manual for trainers. A publication of: Saksham – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Round -7, Counselling Component
Guilamo-Ramos, V., Banu Soletti, A., Burnette, D., Sharma, S., & Leavitt, S., McCarthy, K. (2012). Parent-adolescent communication about sex in rural India: US-India collaboration to prevent adolescent HIV. Qualitative Health Research, 22(6), 788-800.
Honawar,M., Soletti, A.B (2011) “Problems of Women Beggars and emerging gender concerns “ , in Beggary Prevention: Realities, Strategies and Challenges, (New Delhi: National Institute of Social defence): 163-169
Soletti, A.B., Guilamo-Ramos, V., Burnette, D. Sharma, S. & Bouris, A. (2009). India-U.S. collaboration to prevent adolescent HIV-infection: The feasibility of a family-based HIV-prevention intervention for rural Indian youth Journal of the International AIDS Society, 19 (10), 35 doi:10.1186/1758-2652-12-35
Soletti, A.B & Lukose, K. (2009). Constructing pathways to sexual and reproductive health, International Research Journal of Social Sciences, Puducherry, vol.2, No.1 pp 205-216.
Nadkarni, V. & Soletti A.B. (2006). Problems and Needs of Children Affected By HIV/AIDS: Need for Integration in National Policies and Programmes, The Journal of Family Welfare. Mrs. Avabai Wadia 1913-2005 Commemorative Issue. Vol. 52. Special issue 2006.
Nadkarni, V. & Soletti A.B.,( 2006) “A situational analysis of Child headed households and Community foster care in Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh”, India HIV/AIDS Alliance and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (http://www.hivpolicy.org/Library/HPP000982.pdf)

Current Projects: Field Action

Project Director: Pragati-Integrated Rural Health and Development project (IRHDP), Aghai, Shahpur Taluk (2009 Onwards)

https://www.facebook.com/IRHDP

https://tiss.edu/view/11/projects/integrated-rural-health-and-development-project/?fbclid=IwAR0MtWfAF704GoH81wy_ySF3jZ7JBmEje5X-Jbsx-iXXeeXY3QAQWJ0_GNQ

COVID-19 response

Current Projects: Research

1. Mental Health Literacy in Urban and Rural Communities in Kerala, India: An Interdisciplinary Approach Using Applied Theatre Methodology (MeHeLP India) (International Interdisciplinary Project with Prof. Raghu Raghavan, (De Montfort University, DMU) and others, UK and Dr.Sivakami Muthusamy, TISS

Funding: ESRC-AHRC-GCRF, UK.
Involvement in the project: Co-Investigator.
Duration of the project: From September 2018 to December 2021

Visit https://www.mehelp.in/

Completed Projects:

Experiences of caregivers in a home based palliative model: A qualitative study , funded by PALCARE - THE JIMMY S BILIMORIA FOUNDATION

E-Content Project-Coure Coordinator: Social Work (Mental Health), University Grants Commission and Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, 2017

Co-Investigator: Evaluation study of "Changing Lives throught sports: Street 20 program" funded by Barclays, 2015

Principal Investigator: Internet-based HIV prevention for Indian MSM in association with HUMSAFAR sponsored by NIH/ICMR, 2012-2014

Dementia related Stigma in Urban India: Perspectives of Patients, Caregivers and Health Care Providers funded by Morning Side-Columbia University School of Social Work, 2012

Training of trainers module on “Community Mental Health and Development” for senior level development workers and district level professionals working in the field in collaboration with the Centre for Disability Studies and Action and an NGO – Basic Needs India, Bangalore, 2011, sponsored by DRS-UGC, MPSW, 2011

Principal Investigator: Reducing Adolescent HIV-Infection in Maharashtra, India: A Family-Based Approach sponsored by NIH/ICMR, 2008-2011

Factors influencing the Mental Health of the elderly, sponsored by DRS-UGC, MPSW, 2011

A situational analysis and Needs Assessment of Child-Headed Households and Community Foster Care in the context of HIV/AIDS, sponsored by India AIDS Alliance, 2004-2006

Social Work:

Social Work Practice with Individuals
Human Growth and Behavior

Public Health and Mental Health:

Health and Development
Introduction to Health and Mental Health
Community Mental Health
Seminar on emerging Mental Health issues
Issues of working with special groups ( in Developmental and Therapeutic counselling Concentration)
Indigenous Practices in Mental Health (Field based Course)
Rural realities, Health and Mental Health
Dance movement therapy and Mental Health
Mental Health, Marginalisation and Human Rights
Health Planning and Management

Gerontology:

Older Adults with Special Needs
Family Dynamics: Skills and Interventions