Professor Lucie Cluver

Professor of Child and Family Social Work; Fellow of Wolfson College

About

Professor Cluver trained as a social worker, and has practised in South Africa and the UK. She is interested in the effects on children of being orphaned when their parents die of AIDS and of living with parents with HIV and AIDS, most particularly mental health, physical health and educational outcomes.

Her current projects include a 4-year longitudinal study of mental health amongst 1200 AIDS-orphaned children and other children in Cape Town, with the Cape Town Child Welfare Society. Professor Cluver is working with the South African National Departments of Social Development, Health and Education on the Young Carers Project: a national survey of 6,000 children and 2,600 caregivers to determine health and educational impacts of caring for an AIDS-sick caregiver. Other projects include a cluster randomised controlled trial of psychosocial intervention for orphans and vulnerable children in Mpumalanga, with the University of Witwatersrand and Soul City.

Professor Cluver has acted as a scientific advisor to UNICEF, the WHO, and the South African National Action Committee for Children Affected by AIDS (NACCA). She leads the Centre for AIDS Interdisciplinary Research at Oxford (CAIRO).