Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry shines at international congress

Members of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Cape Town returned with a clutch of awards from the International Congress of the International Association of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions (IACAPAP), which was held for the first time in Africa.

Tracy McClinton-Apollis, who completed her Masters degree in the Adolescent Health Research Unit, and Fairuz Gaibie, Community Service Psychologist in the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, both received awards for their poster presentations. McClinton-Apollis was lead author of the poster awarded second prize, and Gaibie was co-author on the winning poster. Only three posters out of a total of 200 presented were awarded prizes.

The Congress, held in Durban from 11-15 August 2014, included about 1 000 participants from 64 countries. Members of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at UCT led and participated in two institutes, two keynote presentations, and eight symposia. They presented eight papers and five posters. In total 18 members of staff and students were active participants.

The main conference chairman was Prof Brian Robertson, Emeritus Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and previous Head of Department at UCT. Prof Petrus de Vries, Sue Struengmann Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and Dr Wendy Vogel, Head of the Clinical Unit, were co-chairs of the Scientific Committee.

Prof de Vries said: "I'm extremely proud of the outstanding contributions by members of the division and its affiliated research groups, including the Adolescent Health Research Unit and the Centre for Autism Research in Africa. The participation from our staff was wonderful, and I'm delighted that two of the three poster prizes awarded included members of our division. This was a wonderful achievement given that there were more than 200 posters."

Prof de Vries expressed his enormous gratitude to all staff and students, and acknowledged the contributions from Prof Robert Morrell and Dr Mignonne Breier from the UCT Research Office and the PERC Programme in providing writing workshops for staff. "I have no doubt that the great expertise, support and encouragement from Prof Morrell and Dr Breier were hugely influential in the outstanding achievements of our division. Long may the university provide such support."

Image by Rogan Ward