Older Adult Behavioral Health Project Director
Nirmala Dhar is a licensed clinical social worker with a Master’s in Social Work from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri and Bombay University, India. She has over 30 years of experience in behavioral health in the public sector in Missouri, New Jersey and Oregon.
She is the Older Adult Behavioral Health Project Director for Oregon Health Authority ‘s Health Systems Division. She has oversight of the Older Adult BH Initiative, PASRR Level II program and Enhanced Care Services. She is the OHA Champion for the Geriatric BH ECHO Clinic for Nursing Facilities.
Prior to this position she worked for Clackamas County Behavioral Health for 18 years. This included 10 years as the geriatric mental health specialist for the County , a clinical program supervisor of the community support team and as a policy analyst on the Health Administration Team. She is a trainer and presenter on behavioral health and aging topics and is a CIT trainer.
Her areas of professional interest include positive aging, social justice, quality improvement, health metrics and workforce development.
Nirmala enjoys gardening, reading non-fiction and travel. She considers herself a foodie! She is married to Sanjay and lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
