ASMAL, Laila (S. Africa)
Dr Laila Asmal is a Senior lecturer and Consultant Psychiatrist at the University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Asmal holds a medical degree from the University of Cape Town, an MMed (Psych), an FCPsych and is completing an MSc in Clinical Epidemiology. She directs clinical Neuropsychiatry services at Tygerberg Academic Hospital in Cape Town South Africa, which involves managing an acute General and Neuropsychiatry in-patient unit and the Neuropsychiatry out-patient service. She supervises Neuropsychiatry training for Psychiatry fellows and co-ordinates the post-graduate MPhil training program in Neuropsychiatry at Stellenbosch University. She also co-ordinates the psychiatry training of middle-phase medical students. This training includes sustainable projects in communities allowing students to critically reflect on social determinants of mental illness. Her research interests include first-episode schizophrenia as well as the interface between Neuropsychiatry and Public Health, in particular clinical and research challenges facing Neuropsychiatry in Africa. Dr Asmal is part of a research team investigating outcomes in first-episode psychosis in a developing world setting. She is also involved in a national project on non-communicable diseases with the Harvard School of Public Health.