Joseph Kirabira, MBChB, MMed,

Dr. Joseph Kirabira is a Ugandan psychiatrist, researcher and teacher who trained from Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST). Currently, he is a doctoral student at MUST, Uganda and Master of Public Health student at University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Dr. Kirabira is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Psychiatry Department at Busitema University Faculty of Health Sciences in Eastern Uganda. He serves as an Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital in Eastern Uganda where he participate in assessment, diagnosis and management of various mental disorders. He is also a member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Though born in Central Uganda, Dr. Kirabira has been able to work with various teaching and health institutions in Southwestern, Eastern and Northern Uganda as a way of extending mental health services to the people that need them the most. His main research interest is related to mental health challenges among children and adolescents with chronic medical conditions such as epilepsy and HIV/AIDS with current focus on the latter. Dr. Kirabira’s current research focus is to explore association between resilience, coping strategies and emotional disorders (depression, anxiety and suicidality) after HIV disclosure among children transitioning to adolescence

Having conducted several other studies that have yielded several first author peer review publications related to burden of mental disorders, Dr. Kirabira’s future goal is to design interventions that will address the child and adolescent mental health challenges.