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Leon is a family doctor, based in Cape Town and is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Ageing in Africa, at University of Cape Town. He is currently a fellow of interRAI and has served as the medical director of AgeWell. He has worked with many community-based organisations in the Western Cape focusing on the needs of older persons. He has worked with the Department of Health in developing a public private partnership for the delivery of primary care services to older persons and has participated in many international and local conferences on ageing.

Gabby is a health researcher with a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cape Town, an MPhil in Social Research Methods from Stellenbosch University, and a bachelor’s degree in politics and economics from UCT. Prior to joining SIFAR, Gabrielle was a post-doctoral fellow at the Centre for Social Science Research at UCT. She has also worked as a research associate in the Department of Chronic Disease Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and spent a year as a Fox International Fellow at Yale’s MacMillan Centre for International and Area Studies. Her research interests include health and social policy, health systems, disability, ageing and programme evaluation.

Robyn graduated as an Occupational Therapist in 2002 (UCT). After completing her community service year, she moved to London, where through working in the NHS, she developed specialist skills in ‘Care of the Elderly’. Upon her return to Cape Town in 2012, Robyn set up a private OT practice. Robyn’s current work interests are varied. She assesses and treats older people in their own home and educates and treats patients who have undergone shoulder surgery post-operatively. Robyn has been involved in pioneering the use of the interRAI assessment tools in South Africa and has also been involved in training with the AgeWell assessors. Through SIFAR, Robyn has been working closely with an IT developer to create the interRAI assessment software programme that is being used for data collection and analysis for the interRAI Primary Care Instrument Project. Robyn is involved in the training and support of interRAI assessors, and subsequent data analysis.

Simone completed her applied Social Sciences Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and her Honours degree in Counselling Psychology. She has also completed a Diploma in Counselling and Communication, a Certificate in Addiction Recovery Coaching and has done a post-graduate Diploma in Interdisciplinary Chronic Pain Management. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. She is passionate about pain psychology and mental health coaching as well as quantitative research methodology. She also loves group facilitation in primary care institutions. Prior to joining SIFAR she worked as a counsellor at Hope House Centre as well as various other NGO institutions that involved disability, trauma, addiction and pain management. She currently has her own private practice as a chronic pain and mental health counsellor and coach. Simone is involved in data analysis and will be working on future SIFAR projects.