Author archives: Vartika Sharma

About Vartika Sharma

Vartika is a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland and works with the Cochrane Common Mental Disorders Group (CCMD) – Child and Young People Satellite (CYP) Satellite. She is an early career researcher, having completed her Doctorate in Health Sciences from Ghent University, Belgium recently. Before joining the University of Auckland, she worked for more than 10 years in public health settings in India and other Low- and Middle-Income countries where her primary focus of research was on improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes among some of the most disadvantaged groups including people who use drugs, cross-border migrants and adolescents. She was also involved in policy-designing for the HIV/AIDS control programme and adolescent health programme for the Government of India and led advocacy-driven work against sexual exploitation of children. In her current role at the Satellite, she is using a consumer-driven approach to identify high priority research uncertainties about prevention and treatment of common mental disorders in children and develop core review outcomes that are meaningful and culturally appropriate for all stakeholders. She is also helping in building robust and detailed epidemiological database on self-harm to inform interventions to reduce suicide deaths throughout New Zealand.