Dr Siyabulela Mkabile

Senior Lecturer

Short Bio

Dr. Siyabulela Mkabile

Dr Siyabulela Mkabile is a clinical psychologist and lecturer in the department of psychology. Within the department his work currently involves clinical training of masters students and teaching and supervision of students at both under- and post-graduate levels.

Dr Mkabile trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of the Western Cape and completed his PhD at Stellenbosch University. He is a recipient of the prestigious Bongani Mayosi scholarship and holds a fellowship with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to joining UCT on a full time basis, he worked for 11 years as a senior clinical psychologist for the Department of Health and as a joint appointee with the Department of Psychiatry, UCT. His work focuses on access to mental health services by marginalised and underserved populations. To this end he specifically works in the area of intellectual and developmental disabilities with children, adults and their families.

Dr Mkabile has multiple publications with his work having been published in prestigious journals, including Comprehensive Psychiatry, Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disability, African Journal of Disability, Transcultural Psychiatry, Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, Journal of Disability & Religion and the International Journal of Social Psychiatry.

Currently Dr Mkabile is running a large NRF-funded study titled “Child Intellectual Disability in Khayelitsha and Mfuleni, Cape Town, South Africa: Engaging with caregivers, spiritual healers and traditional healers”

Teaching Responsibilities

First year Introduction to psychology, PSY1004F: Psychopathology

First year Introduction to psychology, PSY1004F: Psychotherapies

Second year, Abnormal Psychology & Cognitive Neuroscience, PSY2014S: Mood disorders & Intellectual Disability

Third year, Clinical Psychology II, PSY3011S: Critical perspectives on Intellectual Disability, Critical perspectives on depression and Critical perspectives on eating disorders

Fourth year, Counselling

Masters Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Conferences Attended

  1. Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture (SSPC) Conference 2023, 28-30 April 2023, Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice, San Diego, CA
  2. The 26th Annual South African Psychology Congress, 12th to 14th October 2022, Emperors Palace, Johannesburg, South Africa.
  3. The 6th International WACP Congress, 15 – 17 September 2022 in Rotterdam, Netherlands

Publications

  1. Mkabile, S., & Swartz, L. (2022). Putting cultural difference in its place: Barriers to access to health services for parents of children with intellectual disability in an urban African setting. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 68(8), 1614-1622. 
  2. Mkabile, S., & Swartz, L. (2022). Traditional healers’ explanatory models of intellectual disability in Cape Town. Transcultural Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/13634615211055967  
  3. Mkabile, S., & Swartz, L. (2021). Spiritual Healers’ Explanatory Models of Intellectual Disability in Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Disability & Religion, 1-17. 
  4. Mkabile, S., Garrun, K. L., Shelton, M., & Swartz, L. (2021). African families' and caregivers' experiences of raising a child with intellectual disability: A narrative synthesis of qualitative studies. African Journal of Disability (Online), 10, 1-10. 
  5. Mkabile, S., & Swartz, L. (2020). ‘I Waited for It until Forever’: Community Barriers to Accessing Intellectual Disability Services for Children and Their Families in Cape Town, South Africa. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(22), 8504. 
  6. Mkabile, S., & Swartz, L. (2020). Caregivers’ and parents’ explanatory models of intellectual disability in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities. 
  7. Mthembu, J., Hamilton, A. B., Milburn, N. G., Sinclair, D., Mkabile, S., Mashego, M., ... & Wyatt, G. E. (2020). " It Had a Lot of Cultural Stuff in It": HIV-Serodiscordant African American Couples' Experiences of a Culturally Congruent Sexual Health Intervention. Ethnicity & disease, 30(2), 269. 
  8. Capri, C., Abrahams, L., McKenzie, J., Coetzee, O., Mkabile, S., Saptouw, M., ... & Swartz, L. (2018). Intellectual disability rights and inclusive citizenship in South Africa: What can a scoping review tell us?. African Journal of Disability (Online), 7, 1-17. 
  9. Mohamed, A. R., & Mkabile, S. (2015). An attachment-focused parent–child intervention for biting behaviour in a child with intellectual disability: A clinical case study. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 19(3), 251-265. 
  10. Suliman, S., Mkabile, S. G., Fincham, D. S., Ahmed, R., Stein, D. J., & Seedat, S. (2009). Cumulative effect of multiple trauma on symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression in adolescents. Comprehensive psychiatry, 50(2), 121-127. 
  11. Mthembu, J., Hamilton, A. B., Milburn, N. G., Sinclair, D., Mkabile, S., Mashego, M., . . . Wyatt, G. E. (2020). “It Had a Lot of Cultural Stuff in It”: HIV-Serodiscordant African American Couples’ Experiences of a Culturally Congruent Sexual Health Intervention. Ethnicity & Disease, 30(2), 269. 
  12. Zihlazi, S., Kleintjes, S., & Mkabile, S. (2021). Health and social policy priorities of adults with intellectual disability in South Africa.