David Cappo

David Cappo is a social worker by profession, with a career spanning front line social work to leadership roles in social policy development and implementation. Formerly, the Commissioner for Social Inclusion for the Government of South Australia, he led the reform of the State Government’s mental health system, as well as major responses to homelessness, juvenile crime and Aboriginal health needs. As a member of the expert panel on mental health for the Australian Government and Deputy Chair of the National Social Inclusion Board, he provided advice to the Federal Government on major social reform issues. He is now based in Uganda where he works closely with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and a trans-disciplinary team to integrate quality mental health care within the Ugandan public health system and increase the effectiveness and scale of community mental health care in resource-constrained countries such as Uganda. In 2016 he co-founded YouBelong, a Ugandan-registered non-profit organization which utilizes an evidence-driven health systems approach to shift the focus of mental health care in Uganda from institutional-based care to family and community-centred care.