Dr. Manasi Murthy Mittinty receives the Margaret Kelaher Oration Award
We are honoured to announce that Manasi Murthy Mittinty has been awarded the inaugural recipient of the Prof Margaret Kelaher Oration in Pursuit of Health Equity Award Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.
"Prof Kelaher's legacy has shaped the values that guide me, and receiving an award in her name feels both inspiring and grounding. I'm grateful to everyone committed to advancing health equity with such heart and determination. It's a privilege to stand alongside this community."
As part of her oration, Manasi did a presentation on: "Unseen Struggles: Merging Chronic Pain, Disability, and Mental Health in the Pursuit of Health Equity".
Here is an outline of Manasi's presentation:
Chronic pain, disability, and mental health often intersect, creating a complex web of challenges that leaves individuals marginalized and unheard. These conditions don’t exist in isolation—they intertwine, compounding each other’s impact on physical, emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. This reveals the inseparable connection between mind and body, where pain affects mental health, and mental health shapes the experience of pain.
The result is a cycle of neglect within siloed healthcare systems that fail to recognize the full extent of these intertwined struggles. By embracing the interconnectedness of chronic pain, disability, and mental health, we can deliver more compassionate, inclusive, and effective solutions shaped by culture, identity, and lived experience.
Culturally responsive care simply asks: does this care make sense in this person’s real world? We can’t keep designing healthcare for an “average” patient and treating everyone else as an exception. When someone appears to be “struggling,” it is rarely about effort, it’s usually because the system wasn’t built for their body, their culture, or their circumstances.
That’s why equity matters. It pushes us to redesign systems, so people don’t have to reshape themselves to fit.
