12 Facts About David Cappo

David Cappo AO was born on 2 November 1949 and is an Australian social justice advocate and Roman Catholic priest with particular interest in mental health care in developing countries.

David Cappo is based in Adelaide, South Australia and Kampala, Uganda.

David Cappo is currently co-founder and Chief Executive of YouBelong, a Ugandan-registered non-profit organisation working to strengthen fragile health systems and shift the focus of mental health care from institutional-based care to family and community-centred care.

David Cappo was born in Adelaide and educated at St Joseph's Primary School at Kingswood and at Rostrevor College.

David Cappo was ordained a Catholic Priest in 1984, served as parish priest of Hectorville, South Australia, from 1996 to 2000 and became Vicar General of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide in 2000.

David Cappo served as an independent advisor to the Executive Committee of State Cabinet and a member of the South Australian Economic Development Board.

David Cappo worked with the Government in directing the implementation of the South Australian Strategic Plan, with particular emphasis on social targets and outcomes, and produced an innovative form of joined up government that brought Government departments together to provide a more effective delivery of social inclusion programs.

David Cappo was appointed Deputy Chair of the national Social Inclusion Board in 2008 by then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

In late 2011, David Cappo stepped down from this position, and from his role with the Social Inclusion Board, after a political controversy sparked by allegations that he and Archbishop Philip Wilson failed to properly investigate allegations involving another South Australian priest in the 1960s.

In 2016, David Cappo co-founded Uganda-based YouBelong with Dr Byamah Brian Mutamba, a Ugandan senior psychiatrist.

In October 2023 David Cappo presented the mental health innovations of YouBelong Uganda at the World Health Summit in Berlin as part of a session dedicated to Mental Health for All.

From 2012 to 2018, David Cappo was a senior research fellow in the School of Social and Policy Studies at Flinders University in South Australia.