Dr. Maya Thomas

About Doctor

Dr. Maya Thomas joined the Faculty of the Department in 2006 after completing DM in Neurology from Christian Medical College, Vellore. She has completed her MD Pediatrics in Christian Medical College, Vellore.
DATE OF BIRTH      28.01.1958
NATIONALITY         Indian
FAMILY                   Dr. Thomas M.J. (Husband), Consultant Psychiatrist,  Bangalore, India
ADDRESS:  J ? 124, Ushas Apartments,  16th Main, 4th Block,  Jayanagar,  BANGALORE ? 560 011,  INDIA.   Phone: +91?80?29753535, mobile: +91 98459 18185   email: thomasmaya@hotmail.com, skype:maya.thomas2    
QUALIFICATIONS:   Master's Degree in Psychology, Ph.D in Psychology
AREAS OF EXPERTISE:  Policy development, strategy and programme planning related to disability and inclusive development, particularly community based approaches; Evaluation of disability programmes, Capacity building and training of planners and managers of disability programmes.  
 PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS: 111 Indian and international publications.  (Detailed list available on request), Invited speaker at 35 international conferences
CONSULTANCY ASSIGNMENTS: 160 Assignments over 25 years  in Asia, Africa and Europe 33 assignments on policy development and strategy planning,  53 assignments on capacity building and training of planners and managers, 52 assignments on evaluation of disability programmes, 22 assignments related to knowledge enhancing activities. 
AFFILIATIONS: Editor in Chief, Disability, CBR and Inclusive Development, (formerly Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal) till 2019; Editorial Advisor, Disability, CBR and Inclusive Development journal from 2020; Associate of Asia-Pacific Development Centre on Disability, Bangkok, Thailand; Member of the Editorial Committee for the World Disability Rehabilitation Report, WHO, Geneva; Member of the Core Group to develop the CBR Guidelines, WHO, Geneva.
 
SOME RECENT ASSIGNMENTS
Capacity building
Resource person at CBR training courses held in India, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Vietnam, Thailand, between 1997 to date. 
Resource person at the CBR Management Training Programme for partners of CORDAID, SKN and SLF, Guntur, India, January 2008.
Resource person at the workshop on Leprosy and CBR, International Leprosy Congress, Hyderabad, India, February 2008.
Resource Person at the International CBR Managers’ Training organised by Enablement, Netherlands, October 2008.
Resource Person at the ASEAN CBR Training Programme conducted by the Asia Pacific Centre on Disability, Bangkok, Thailand, June 2010.
Resource Person at the CBR Training of Trainers Programme conducted by the Asia Pacific Centre on Disability, Bangkok, Thailand, May 2011.
Visiting faculty at the Summer School on Disability and Development, VU University, Amsterdam and Universitas Indonesia. Jakarta, June 2011.
Resource Person at the Disability and Development Training of Trainers Programme conducted by the Asia Pacific Centre on Disability, Bangkok, Thailand, February 2012.
Resource Person at the Training of Trainers Programme for China Disabled Persons’ Federation personnel, conducted by CBM China, Kunming, China, July 2012.
Resource Person at the Disability and Development Training of Trainers Programme conducted by the Asia Pacific Centre on Disability, Bangkok, Thailand, September 2012
Faculty at the Summer School on Disability and Development, University of Indonesia, Depok, July 2013.
Resource Person at the workshop on evaluation methodology for CBM China and China Disabled Persons Federation, Wuxi, China, November 2013.
 
Policy and strategy development
Strategic Advisor on disability issues for the CORDAID India programme, 2000 -2010
Strategic Advisor and Consultant on building capacity of national master trainers on CBR, and developing CBR manuals, Ministry of Health, Govt of Vietnam and MCNV Netherlands, Hanoi, January 2005, August 2005 and August 2006.
Facilitator for Strategy Planning, training and review of CBR for United Aid for Azerbaijan, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2005 to  2009.
Member of the Expert Group for ‘Evolving disability specific targets and indicators for the MDG’, UNESCAP, Bangkok, November 2007.
Member of the International Advisory Group for the Conduct of the 1st Asia-Pacific CBR Congress, Bangkok, February 2009.
Member of the Expert group constituted by UNDESA, New York, for “Mainstreaming Disability in MDG Policies, Processes and Mechanisms:  Development for All”, Geneva, April 2009.
Facilitator for Strategy Planning for Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre, Nepal, May 2010.
Strategic Advisor, disability issues, for Wadhwani Foundation, USA, 2011.
Member of the Expert Group to develop a strategic framework for the Health Component of CBR for WHO South-East Asia region, World Health Organisation, SEARO, New Delhi, November 2011
Lead Consultant for development of 2 concept papers for International Disability and Development Consortium (IDDC), 2012. 1.. CBR Guidelines as a Tool for Community Based Inclusive Development. 2 Community Based Rehabilitation and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Lead consultant for CBM India to develop the national plan for community based rehabilitation for Government of India, September 2013.
Member of the Expert Group constituted by UN DESA, New York, for “Disability and development – Operationalising the post 2015 development agenda for persons with disabilities”, May 2015
Consultant to HI Belgium for inclusion of disability issues into health sector national strategy planning in Laos, July – October  2015 .
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Evaluation and research
Team Leader for the UNDP Research on ‘Impact of tsunami on persons with disability’ in Tamil Nadu State, India, undertaken by WilburSmith Associates, India, 2007.
Team leader for the Evaluation of CBR Projects in India of Leonard Cheshire International South Asia Regional Office, Bangalore, India, 2007.
Team leader for the evaluation of BasicNeeds India Mental Health and Development Programme, India, March 2008.
Team leader for a study on ‘Status of implementation of the Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities – Challenges from Ratification to Implementation’, for the Commonwealth Foundation, UK, 2009.
Team leader for the evaluation of Yunnan Disabled Persons’ Federation CBR Programme, for CBM China, Kunming, China, April-May 2009.
Team leader for the evaluation of Livability’s overseas work. Livability Ireland, Nov 09-March 10.
Member of the Expert group  to determine research priorities for a DFID-UK funded Cross-cutting Disability Research Programme based at University College London, Bangalore, April 2010.
Coordinator for the production and distribution of CBR in Africa Series 1, 2,  3, 4 and 5for CBR Network Africa, Uganda. 
Evaluation of Livability’s work in Asia-Pacific Region, Livability Ireland, 2010.
Evaluation of Liliane Foundation’s work in Asia, July 2011.
Lead researcher for the WHO-APCD “Situation analysis of CBR in Southeast Asia Region”, 2011
Mid-term Review of Hue CBR Project of CBM-Vietnam, for CBM CEARO, October 2011
Mid-term Review of the Yunnan Province CBR Project of CBM-China, January 2012
Mid-term Review of the CBR Project of Leprosy Mission International, Myanmar,for CBM CEARO, March 2012
Evaluation of CDMD-CBR Programme, Cambodia, for CBM CEARO, July 2012
Review of the Luzhou Disabled Persons’ Federation, for CBM China, July 2012.
Evaluation of CABDICO, Cambodia, October 2012
Evaluation of DDSP, Cambodia, November 2012
Evaluation of Mobility India projects for CBM India, August 2013
Evaluation of CBM China CBR projects in China, May 2014.
Lead consultant to develop monitoring systems for a USAID funded 5 country Wheelchair service provision project  of World Vision, US, June –September 2014.
Analysis of CBR experiences in Lao PDR and suggestions for future planning, for HI-Belgium, Laos, October 2015
Mid-term review of Disability Rights Initiative Cambodia, a joint UN programme by UNDP, WHO and UNICEF Cambodia, supported by DFAT, Australia, February-May 2016.
Organisational Review and Strategy planning for Spinal Injury Rehabilitation Centre, Nepal, February-June 2016
End term evaluation of Hear My Voice – Empowering Tajik Civil Society for Disability Rights Advocacy, Tajikistan,  project of Mission East Brussels, supported by Danish CISU, May-July 2017
Editing and finalization of “CBR Service Standards” for WHO Tajikistan, February 2019
Review of Application of Service Specification and Standards of Daycare centres for children with disabilities in Tajikistan, for Mission East Belgium, May-June 2019.
 
Recent papers and publications 
Papers presented:
Evolution of CBR in south Asia, Paper presented at the WHO Regional CBR Congress, Santiago, Chile, December 2006.
Partnerships/alliance building in CBR: NGOs and Civil Society. Paper presented at the 1st Asia-Pacific Congress on CBR, Bangkok, February 2009.
Indicators to measure success in Community Based Rehabilitation. Paper presented at the International Conference on Chronic Care, Hong Kong, January 2010. 
Research on community based rehabilitation and inclusive development. Paper presented at the International conference on Implementing Disability-inclusive development in the Pacific and Asia, Darwin, Australia, September 2010.
Quality of life: reflections from evaluation of community-based rehabilitation projects in India and China. Paper presented at the Disability Studies Conference “Diversity in Quality of Life”, VU University, Amsterdam, December 2010.
Community based rehabilitation and Community based inclusive development. Paper presented at NFU University, Nagoya, Japan, February 2011.
Evolution of CBR and linkages with CRPD. Paper presented at the 1st World Congress on CBR, Agra, India, November 2012.
2 Decades of CBR. Paper presented at the Prof. Sheila Wirz Memorial Symposium, Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK, February 2014.
Networking for Community based Inclusive Development. Paper presented at the CBR Seminar of Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities, Shirakawa, Japan, November 2014.
CBR as a Strategy for Comprehensive Care in the Community – Lessons Learned  from Experiences in Developing Countries. Paper presented at the seminar on Fuwarinclusion 2015 organised by social Welfare Cooperation MUSOU, Tokyo, Japan, January 2015.
Lessons Learned from Community based Inclusive Development in Asia and the Pacific. Paper presented at the 3rd Asia-Pacific CBR Congress, Tokyo, Japan, September 2015.
The More things Change, the More they Remain the Same – CBR to CBID. Paper presented at the 4th CBID Congress, Ulaan Bator, Mongolia, July 2019.
Publications
Guest Editor for the Special Issue on Disability and Rehabilitation in India, published by the Saudi Journal of Disability and Rehabilitation, Riyadh, Jan-March 2000.
Series Editor for Selected Readings in Community Based Rehabilitation, Series 1 : CBR in Transition, Associate publication of the Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, published by Action for Disability, UK, January 2000.
Series Editor for Selected Readings in Community Based Rehabilitation, Series 2 : Disability and Rehabilitation Issues in South Asia, Associate publication of the Asia Pacific Disability Rehabilitation Journal, published by Action for Disability, UK, January 2002.
Editorial Board Member. WHO/ILEP Technical Guide on community-based rehabilitation and leprosy. WHO, 2007
Chief Editor, Inclusive Community Development – Future Direction of Community-based Rehabilitation in Asia-Pacific. Published by Asia Pacific Centre for Disability and Development, Bangkok, 2010.
Editor. CBR and Inclusive Development in Asia and the Pacific. Published by Asia Pacific Centre for Disability and Development, Bangkok, 2010.
Executive Editor. Community-based Inclusive Development. Published by Asia Pacific Centre for Disability and Development, Bangkok, 2010.
Executive Editor. Relevance of CBR and Inclusive Development in post-2015 Development Agenda.  Published by Asia Pacific Centre for Disability and Development, Bangkok, 2013.
Editor-in-Chief. Good Practices on Community based Inclusive Development in Asia and the Pacific. Published by APCD, Bangkok, JANNET, JSRPD and CBR Asia Pacific Network, 2015
 
Papers published
Thomas, M. and Thomas M.J. A discussion on the shifts and changes in community based rehabilitation in the last decade. Neurorehabilitation and neural repair, 1999. 13(3): p. 185-189.
Wirz. S, Thomas M. Evaluation of CBR Programmes : A Search for Appropriate Indicators.  International Journal of Rehabilitation Research, Vol 25 (3), 2002.
Thomas M, Thomas M.J. Community based rehabilitation as a tool for inclusion and empowerment of persons with disability. Behinderung und Dritte Welt, 2005, 94-98
Hartley S, Finkenflugel H, Kuipers P, Thomas M. Community-based rehabilitation: opportunity and challenge. Lancet 2009 November, 28;374(9704):1803-4.
Thomas M. Thomas M.J. Global Trends in Disability rehabilitation and their Implications for Leprosy Programmes. Leprosy review 2008; 79(1):10-16
Thomas M. Reflections on Community Based Rehabilitation. Psychology and Developing Societies 2011; 23(2) 277–291
Thomas M. Community Based Rehabilitation as a Strategy for Community Based Inclusive Development. Disability and International Development. 2013, Issue 1, 15-20.