Two recent graduates of the CPMH MPhil programme chatted to Maggie Marx about their study experience and what the completion of the course means to them.

Demoubly Kokota, a research coordinator for the Scotland Malawi Mental Health Education Project at the University of Malawi says:

“My time doing the MPhil in Public Mental Health was amazing. I enjoyed every aspect of the course such as the intensive 3-week advanced mental health lessons, sightseeing of Cape Town, excellent supervisors and webinars to assist me with any problems I encountered at any stage.

The course is very beneficial for anyone trying to have a career in research or public health. It equips you with all the skills you may need to conduct good research and critically evaluate health services in any country.  I would encourage everyone to consider this course.”

Dr. Qhama Cossie, another graduate is also very impressed with the programme and being able to fine tune his clinical skills during the course was of great value to him.

“I’m a psychiatrist at VBH in Cape Town, in the UCT Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health with an interest in severe mental illness and public mental health.

As a part of my work I am the consultant psychiatrist for our hospital assertive community treatment team (ACT). The ACT team manages patients with severe mental illness who have a revolving door pattern of readmission, with frequent readmissions and long stays in hospital. We conduct home visits and work very closely with available family members. My research was focused on the ACT service and my dissertation title was The relationship between patient, carer and staff perceptions of need in an assertive community treatment team in South Africa.

The process of completing the MPhil gave me a greater understanding of the research process and it enabled me fine tune my clinical skill. Focusing on a topic directly linked to my day-to-day clinical work it has allowed me and the team to better understand the patients we serve and it has highlighted the importance of adopting the recovery model and changing the way that the team works.”