Dr. Yvette Nel

Yvette Nel is a South African psychiatry researcher whose work is closely associated with clinical practice and academic training in Johannesburg. Her publications in the South African Journal of Psychiatry reflect engagement with major public mental health institutions, including the University of the Witwatersrand and Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, with a focus on strengthening psychiatric services in resource-constrained settings.

Her research centres on the intersection of severe mental illness with HIV, substance use, reproductive health, and patient rights. She has explored adherence to antiretroviral therapy among psychiatric patients, contraceptive practices in women with mental illness, and substance use patterns in adolescent inpatients, highlighting systemic gaps in integrated and preventive care.

Nel has also contributed to scholarship on electroconvulsive therapy, examining professional attitudes toward ECT and reporting on complex clinical applications, including catatonia in medically vulnerable patients. Additional work on voting capacity among hospitalised mental healthcare users underscores her interest in ethics, legal frameworks, and the protection of dignity and autonomy within psychiatric care.