POST Program

POST Welcomes Frances Ames Scholar

July 1, 2015

Dr. Engelina Groenewald from Cape Town, South Africa joined the POST Program for the month of April to observe aged mental health and neuropsychiatry. Engelina is the most recent recipient of the Frances Ames Scholarship named after St Vincent’s Mental Health Chair of Psychiatry Prof David Castle’s mother and influential neurologist.

Dr. Frances Ames was the first woman to graduate with a medical degree from Cape Town University and went on to receive South Africa’s highest humanitarian award from former President Nelson Mandela. The bi-annual scholarship aims to support African mental health clinicians to visit Melbourne and undertake a month long clinical attachment in their chosen mental health subspecialty.

As a senior registrar in the Division of Neuropsychiatry at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, Engelina selected to observe psychology staff, neuropsychiatry, pharmacology departments, memory clinics, dementia services and psychogeriatric nursing homes.

Engelina spent the majority of her program attached to the STV Aged Psychiatric Assessment Treatment Team (APATT) at St George’s Aged Campus and participated in ward rounds at St Vincent’s Hospital, The Royal Melbourne Hospital and Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne’s West. She also presented to a large audience of peers on the topic of HIV psychiatry in South Africa with a particular focus on access to treatment and antiretroviral therapies.

It was a pleasure to host Engelina and we look forward to welcoming the next Frances Ames Scholar in 2016.

Pictured: Dr. Engelina Groenewald & Prof. David Castle