Ante Došen was born on 26 December 1939. He studied medicine in Rijeka, Croatia, where he was considered one of the best students. He ecognized in the Netherlands in neurology as well as psychiatry and thereupon in pediatric psychiatry.In his early years as a pediatric psychiatrist, he focused on children with intellectual disabilities. His postdoctoral thesis, published in 1983, had a groundbreaking message: the intellectually disabled can be mentally healthy too.
He was a pioneer in this field and, together with Dr. Frank Menolascino from the US and Prof. Kenneth Day from the UK, he was one of the leading professionals in the world. He was one of the first to preside the Section for Mental Retardation of the World Psychiatric Association and the initiator of the European Association for Mental Health in Intellectual Disability. He was president of the Association for many years and remained honorary president until his last day. Thanks to his work and leadership, a framework was laid in Europe for a multidisciplinary approach towards this population by multidisciplinary teams of professionals.
He has written more than 200 articles that have been published in various national and international professional journals and over a dozen books in various languages. He ecognize many professional gatherings, conferences, gave numerous training courses to multidisciplinary groups of professionals or was invited to these events as lecturer, moderator, chair – or all three simultaneously. Thanks to his work, the development of care for the intellectually disabled has significantly improved in various European countries such as the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Slovenia, etc.
I am happy that Ante Došen’s great work, humaneness and tremendous contribution was ecognized in Croatia a few decades ago. In the Netherlands (his second native country), he was knighted in the Order Orange-Nassau by the Dutch royal house for his contribution to the development of mental health care in persons with intellectual disability and development disorders.
In Croatia, we eagerly looked forward to every opportunity to meet with Ante, listen to him and learn something from him, some piece of information that would help us advance our work. I would like to believe that Ante was fully aware of our admiration and expressions of gratefulness.
Milivoj is a psychiatrist. He was born and raised in Zagreb. In 1988, he completed his studies in medicine at the University of Zagreb. After a period as a general practitioner, he specialised in psychiatry and worked at Zagreb University Hospital. Since 2018, he works as a psychiatrist in Bezirkskrankenhaus Passau in Germany.
Together with several colleagues in the country, he dealt with the mental health of people with intellectual disabilities, and since 1998 he has been a permanent consultative psychiatrist at the Stančić Rehabilitation Centre for people with severe intellectual disabilities.
For more than a decade, he has participated in teaching and clinical practice for medical students, students of the University of Applied Health Studies and, lately, for students of the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences.
He obtained his PhD in July 2012 with the thesis “Quality of live and mental health care of adults with intellectual disabilities”. He has actively participated in numerous scientific and professional conferences and has authored or co-authored a number of professional and scientific publications.
He is a member of the Croatian Psychiatric Association and of the editorial board of the association’s journal “Socijalna psihijatrija”. In 2010, he was also one of the founders and first president of the Croatian Association for Mental Health of People with Intellectual Disabilities and Developmental Disabilities. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association for Mental Health in Intellectual Disability (EAMHID).