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Chris Underhill    

Founder Director of BasicNeeds, Social Entrepreneur & Chair of the Catalyst 2030 Mental Health Collaboration

Chris Underhill is a global expert in the delivery of health and rehabilitation systems to very poor people. A serial social entrepreneur his latest organisation, BasicNeeds, concerns the delivery of a holistic model to mentally ill people and people with epilepsy in the poorest communities of the world. The BasicNeeds Model is a significant innovation in community mental health care delivery combining medical, social, economic and personal aspects into one successful programme. Over 625,000 people have been served in the BasicNeeds global programme.

Chris also founded Thrive in 1978 (formerly Horticultural Therapy) a UK based charity working with disabled people and medical professionals in horticulture, gardening and agriculture, and Action on Disability and Development (ADD) in 1985, a development agency targeting disabled people in the developing world.

He has also been a Founding Chair of International Development Enterprise (IDE UK), Friends of Association of People with Disabilities (APD), Leaders’ Quest Foundation and Carers Worldwide.

Chris is a Senior Fellow of the Ashoka Fellowship, a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and a Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur. In 2000 Chris was made an MBE by the Queen for his services to disability and development.

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