2025 UHC Day Champion
Pradeep Gunarathne
Co-Chair of the UHC Working Group of the Global Mental Health Action Network, Sri Lanka
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Financial protection is crucial for upholding dignity, trust and equitable access to universal health coverage.
Pradeep Gunarathne is a Sri Lankan occupational therapist, academic, and mental health advocate with over 15 years of experience spanning clinical practice, policy advocacy, research and teaching. He currently serves as a Probationary Lecturer at the University of Kelaniya and as Co-Chair of the Universal Health Coverage Working Group of the Global Mental Health Action Network, where he leads global advocacy to integrate mental health into UHC frameworks.
Pradeep has held pioneering roles in forensic psychiatry, child and adolescent mental health and community-based services, including establishing occupational therapy services in both Sri Lanka and the Maldives. A long-standing national organiser of Consumer Action Network Mental Health (CAN MH) Lanka, he has played a sustained role in shaping rights-based mental health policy, disability inclusion, and stakeholder engagement at national and international levels.
An MPhil (PhD track) candidate, his research focuses on culturally responsive, community-based occupational therapy interventions for youth mental health. Pradeep brings a strong evidence-informed, human rights–centred perspective to UHC, with a particular commitment to ensuring that mental health and disability are no longer treated as optional add-ons, but as core components of equitable health systems.
