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Fellows


Saira Abdulla

Roles: Fellow
Position: PhD Fellow
Qualifications: MA in Demography and Population Studies

Saira Abdulla is a SARChI PhD research fellow, and holds a Masters degree in Demography and Population studies. Prior to joining the PhD program, Saira was a M&E manager at I-TECH SA . She has worked on various projects including HIV prevention interventions, Mental health integration (MhINT) and Key Population programmes. Her PhD focus is on strengthening community-based collaborative strategies for people living with serious mental illness in SA.

Research interests Saira has a keen interest in implementation research, and her research focus includes improving care for people living with mental illness, HIV/AIDS prevention, and health policy implementation.

Dr Samantha Mhlanga

Roles: Fellow
Position: PostDoctoral Fellow
Qualifications: PhD, MA Demography and population studies, Bachelor of Social Work
Email: Samantha.mhlanga@wits.ac.za

Samantha is a South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) Postdoctoral Fellow in Health Systems and Policy. Her PhD focused on evaluating community-based accommodation services for people with serious mental illness. Prior to her postdoctoral fellowship, she worked as a researcher on a project exploring the role of community health workers in delivering community-based mental health services for people with serious mental illness.
Building on her doctoral research, her postdoctoral work examines typologies of accommodation services and approaches to assessing their quality standards.

Research interests: Community-based mental health residential services, quality standards, personal recovery of people with serious mental illness, health systems and policy.

Miss Tintswalo Mabasa

Roles: Intern
Position: Pre-PhD Intern

Miss Tintswalo Mabasa is a Pre-PhD Intern at the Centre for Health Policy, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand.

Qualifications: Tintswalo holds a Master of Arts in Social Work by Dissertation (research). She also holds a Bachelor of Social Work Degree from the same University, Witwatersrand.

Research interests: Tintswalo has a keen interest in the discharge process for people living with serious mental illness from hospital to community-based care and how to improve continuity of care and user experience. During her Master’s degree, her research focus was on the beliefs and perceptions of adolescents about sexual relationships: a case of two public secondary schools in Soweto, Gauteng.