Dr Ingrid Daniels has been the Chief Executive Officer at Cape Mental Health, the oldest and largest community-based mental health non-profit organisation (1913) in South Africa, since 2000. She obtained her Master’s in Social Science (Clinical Social Work) and PhD in Social Work at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
She is currently the Past President of the World Federation for Mental Health (WFMH) and remains an active member serving on multiple WFMH Mental Health Sections including the Women’s Mental Health Section and was a member of the WFMH Africa Regional Advisory Committee.
In her role as President, she collaborated extensively with several global organisations including WHO and launched with her team two successful World Mental Health Day events in 2020 and 2021 reaching over 10 million people globally during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
She is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Division of Intellectual Disability, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town and teaches at Bochum University of Applied Sciences, Germany on the International Programme on Diversity and Inclusion and Ethics Course.
She serves on the Global Alliance for Mental Health Advocates (GAMHA) advisory panel whose activities are coordinated by Silver Ribbon in Singapore. Dr Daniels also serves on the mHub Board of Professional and Academic Advisors, mHub Global, to advise on insights into global best practices, market trends, growth and opportunity and challenges in the African mental health and employee well-being landscape.
She also served on South Africa’s National Mental Health Advisory Committee who advised the National Minister of Health on the implementation of the National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2014-2020. She is an Executive Committee and Board member of the South African Federation for Mental Health.
On behalf of the World Federation for Mental Health and in partnership with the City of Barcelos and RECOVERY IPSS, Portugal, she was actively involved in planning and launch of the 1st World Mental Health City in Barcelos, Portugal in December 2023.
She has an extensive resumé of publications and presentations delivered at national and international levels and remain committed to addressing global mental health challenges particularly in lower-and middle-income countries and specifically in South Africa.
Her research interests include health systems strengthening for persons with mental health conditions and intellectual disability; inclusion of persons with intellectual disability and mental health conditions in decision-making in all aspects of their lives; facilitating creative options for participation of persons with intellectual disability and mental health conditions in governance structures of NGOs; facilitating creative opportunities for ongoing education and employment for persons with intellectual disability; developing human rights monitoring and protection instruments; designing cost effective mental health interventions for scaleability etc.
She continues to actively advocate and seek creative and innovative solutions to address mental health service delivery gaps within communities to ensure that mental health becomes a reality for all global citizens.