Personnel Profile
The academic department personnel are closely associated with the routine operations of the Gauteng Department of Health and the Mental Health Directorate. Our teachers and trainers for the specialty of psychiatry and subspecialties in the area of Forensic Psychiatry, Child & Adolescent (C&A) psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry, have post graduate degrees in psychiatry which are the FCPsych (SA) qualification and/or MMED(Psychiatry). Those who work in the aforementioned specialties have additional subspecialities certificates from the College of Medicine.
Clinical psychologists have Masters’ degrees in Clinical Psychology, and they are registered with the HPCSA after internship and community service. Many of our psychologists also have PhDs. Collectively they assist with the training of psychiatry registrars in psychology/behavioural sciences (a first-year module for the FCPsych (SA) degree) as well as practical psychotherapy supervision over the four years.
Psychiatric services are offered over three acute units in general hospitals (CHBAH, CMJAH and Helen Joseph Hospital), 2 specialised psychiatric hospitals (Sterkfontein and Tara R Moss Hospitals) and community psychiatric services in 4 districts/regions in Southern Gauteng. There are 61 registrars enrolled in the department at various levels of training. Permanent or Joint appointed staff comprise 66 psychiatrists, 13 honorary appointments, and 56 psychologists. Certain sites also have medical officers who have worked in psychiatry for an extended period and therefore are able to assist in the training of Registrars and medical students. In 2020, the divisions of Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychiatry, Child & Adolescent psychiatry and Neuropsychiatry were introduced. The latter three are subspecialties within the HPCSA.
The core administrative team is made up of Mrs Chantal Lambert and Ms Mandisa Chirwa. Our offices were in area 459 at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg academic hospital (CMJAH). Subsequent to the fire at CMJAH in April 2021, the department has temporarily moved to the Phillip Tobias building, on the second floor. Most staff members can be found off campus at the various clinical sites i.e., CMJAH, Helen Joseph Hospital (HJH), CHBAH, TARA hospital, Sterkfontein hospital and the various district level clinics. There are over 70 secondary level mental health clinics in JHB Metro district, Ekhuruleni clinics, Sedibeng regional clinics and the West Rand district.
Profile of academic clinical sites
The Department of Psychiatry covers a number of Units Comprising Specialist Hospitals: Sterkfontein and Tara; Acute Units in general hospitals: Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital (CHBAH), Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH) and Helen Joseph Hospital; Child and Family Units at CMJAH, Tara,CHBAH, as well as at Rahima Moosa Mother & Child Hospital and Adolescent Units at Tara and Sterkfontein Hospital (Forensic). The Department also renders service in community at clinics in the following regions; Ekurhuleni, Sedibeng, Metro and West Rand.
The acute psychiatric admission units in general hospitals are high turnover multidisciplinary in-patient units. Psychiatrists and Registrars working in these units also provide specialist psychiatrist cover for casualty, consultation-liaison psychiatry for other clinical disciplines and outpatient psychiatry clinics. 24-hour emergency psychiatric consultation service through the casualties may be required for psychiatric emergencies such as suicidality, aggression and psychosis as well as for patients who need crisis intervention. These emergency assessments are carried out on site in casualty by psychiatric medical officers or registrars under consultant supervision. It is also common for psychiatrists to be called out to give advice on the management of delirium or other acute presentations with a behavioural component for admitted patients.
All the Units are busy service entities and Consultant Psychiatrists, Registrars and Psychologists hold joint University/Province appointments. Each Unit runs an academic programme and is involved in postgraduate training of Psychiatrists and Psychologists and Allied Medical Disciplines. Undergraduate medical students do clinical rotations in most of the Units as part of their training.
An important feature of the Department of Psychiatry is that it promotes communication and cohesion between the Units whilst providing a large proportion of the mental health services in Southern Gauteng. The Department Executive Committee meets monthly with representation from all Units and has academic and service delivery matters on the agenda. The Department has an active research programme with an emphasis on the MMed degree as part of specialist training.