Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning
About PILL
Promoting optimal physical and mental health in infants, children, youth, their families, and communities.
About PILL
PILL is dedicated to promoting optimal physical and mental health in infants, children, youth, their families, and communities for healthy psychosocial functioning and development. Currently, PILL has a multidisciplinary team of approximately 250 professionals including psychiatrists, psychologists, general physicians, pediatricians, biostatisticians, social workers, lady health workers, traditional birth attendants, nurses, community supervisors, community volunteers, and experts from public health, business administration, health economics, information technology and media sciences.
With such a diverse team, PILL now has offices in all four provinces of Pakistan and works with national as well as international collaborators across DSM-5 divisions such as depression, anxiety, maternal and paternal depression, dementia, and severe mental illnesses in low-resource settings. Embedding work within existing NGO/health infrastructure and the local academic research community is one of PILL’s strengths.
Visit pill.org.pk
Leadership
Founder
General (R) Ishrat Husain
Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning (PILL) was established in Islamabad in 1998. It was a unique concept by Major General (R) Ishrat Husain (late) to promote mental health of a common man. He was an eminent psychiatrist and visionary who believed in a holistic approach — integrating physical, mental and spiritual interventions for wellbeing.
He believed physical and mental health together play a vital role in positive child development and a better family environment. Pakistan Armed Forces awarded him the Sitara-e-Imtiaz (Military) in 1978 and Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 1984. After he passed away, the institute was renamed Ishrat Husain Pakistan Institute of Living and Learning.
How it all started
To take forward his vision of wellbeing and resilience, the first board of trustees — Prof. Nusrat Husain, Prof. Imran Chaudhry, Prof. Nasim Chaudhry and Dr. Meher Husain — started its first project from Mandara, Islamabad in collaboration with Prof. Francis Creed from the University of Manchester. Over the years, PILL has conducted multiple clinical trials of culturally adapted psychosocial and pharmacological interventions.
Prof. Nasim Chaudhry
Co-founder
Prof. Imran Chaudhry
Co-founder
Prof. Nusrat Husain
Co-founder
Prof. Meher Husain
Co-founder