Dr Olindah Silaule
My area of practice and scholarship is within Mental Health (MH). I am particularly interested in community mental health, support for caregivers in mental health, and routine outcome measurement in mental health rehabilitation. My experience in community mental health has highlighted the service gap that exists for mental health service users and their caregivers. This has informed my interest towards strengthening the quality and efficiency of mental health services within communities, to include care-giver support, particularly in low-resourced settings. I am also interested in research that addresses the implementation of routine outcome measurement into clinical practice as a way of building evidence on the effectiveness of rehabilitation services in mental health. These research interests are centred around addressing the social determinants of mental health by ensuring that people with mental disorders are included within their communities.
My Master’s research was concerned with the routine measurement of outcomes for mental healthcare users attending occupational therapy in an acute mental healthcare unit within a rural context. The findings of the study revealed that occupational therapy programs were effective in promoting activity participation during hospitalization, and the need for caregiver-orientated mental health services was highlighted as a strategy for building support for the mental health service users at the community level. My Doctoral work aimed to develop strategies for alleviating caregiver burden among informal caregivers of persons with severe mental disorders in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga province. The findings of the study informed the development of a multilevel conceptual framework for alleviating caregiver burden in low-resourced settings with strategies at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels. I supervise undergraduate and postgraduate students across a range of topics within the area of Mental Health.
Qualifications:
Bsc (OT)
MSc (OT)
PhD.