Professor Osvaldo P. Almeida

Osvaldo Almeida is Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry at UWA, Director of Research of the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing and Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences.

Professor Almeida completed his medical training at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and his postgraduate training at the University of London, UK. He moved to UWA in 1998 and was appointed Chair of Geriatric Psychiatry in 2001. He has since developed extensive research programs designed to identify and modify risk factors associated with poor mental health in later life, and contributed to improving understanding about the role of sex hormones on mood and cognitive function. Together with his colleagues, he also showed that physical activity decreases the rate of cognitive decline among older people.

Internationally recognised for his pioneering work on characterising the psychotic states of later life, Professor Almeida’s work has contributed to the development of new guidelines for the diagnosis of psychotic states in later life.

Over the past five years, Professor Almeida’s research efforts have concentrated on three areas:

• Improving the clinical outcomes of older people with or at risk of depression
• Ascertaining the causal relationship between dementia and mood disorders and cardiovascular disease
• Clarifying how depression contributes to increase the risk of frailty as people age 

Professor Almeida’s work has been published extensively, including more than 300 journal articles, numerous books and book chapters. Professor Almeida led the establishment of the Western Australian Centre for Health and Ageing with geriatrician Professor Leon Flicker, and currently serves as its Director of Research. He continues to work in a clinical capacity as a consultant geriatric psychiatrist for the Eastern Metropolitan Health Service.

Professor Almeida maintains close collaborative links with colleagues in Perth, as well as in Australia and overseas. Some of his current collaborators include colleagues from University of Melbourne, James Cook University, University of York and University of Cambridge.

Professor Almeida has extensive experience in the supervision and mentorship of students, with eight PhD completions, one PhD student ongoing, 10 postgraduate non-doctoral research dissertations, and regular supervision of trainees in psychiatry (more than 50). The identification and modification of risk factors associated with mental health disorders in later life is the underlying theme of this work.