2026 SA-ACAPAP Website

Our Keynote Speakers:

• • • Dr Massimiliano Orri | McGill University, Canada

Dr. Massimiliano Orri is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University, a Principal Investigator at the Douglas Hospital Research Centre, and an associate member in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health at McGill University. He is a Theme Lead in the Montreal WHO/PAHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Mental Health. His multidisciplinary research program in psychiatric epidemiology aims to understand the risk factors of suicide across the lifespan using data from large population-based longitudinal studies and genetically informed methods. Besides research, Dr. Orri practices as a clinical psychologist in the Depressive and Suicide Disorders Program at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute

• • • Prof Linda Richter | University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Prof Richter is a Distinguished Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. She led the DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development in its first four years from 2014-2018. She is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa, a Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford (UK), a Faculty Affiliate of the World Policy Centre at the University of California in Los Angeles, and an advisor to the World Health Organization in Geneva on early child development. From 2003-2006, she was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Melbourne, from 2007-2010 a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (USA), and from 2010-2012 she served in Geneva as Advisor on Vulnerable Children at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. She obtained her PhD in Psychology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

• • • Prof Christina Schwenck | University of Giessen, Germany

Christina Schwenck is professor for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology at the University of Giessen, Germany. She studied psychology at the Universities of Würzburg and Madrid and completed her PhD in Developmental Psychology at the University of Würzburg. She worked at the Departments of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy of the University Hospitals of Würzburg, Munich and Frankfurt.
She is a trained child and adolescent psychotherapist (specification behaviour therapy) and a trained supervisor. Her research interests include selective mutism, conduct disorder and children of parents with mental illness. In her free time, she follows her passion for photography around the globe.
Prof Schwenck was Secretary-General of IACAPAP between 2018-2022 and is currently on the IACAPAP Executive as co-coordinator of the HRRS programme. Her vision is to strengthen the training and promotion of child and adolescent mental health professionals, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, including long-term mentorships for early career scientists and clinicians in this important field.
Furthermore, she aims to attract more allied professionals into IACAPAP to enhance active collaboration between professions in order to provide optimal care for children and adolescents with mental health problems