Carlos Augusto de Mendonça Lima (*28.03.1958) grew up in Brazil and completed his medical studies in Rio de Janeiro in 1983. He went to Europe and qualified as a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy in France in 1989. He then worked in various settings, in Portugal and Switzerland. Here he last practiced in a group practice in Mézières.
From the beginning of his medical career, he was committed to the well-being of mentally ill elderly people. He was a consultant of the Mental Health Division of the World Health Organization from 1992 to 1998. He helped to create the WHO Collaborating Centre for Psychiatry of the Elderly in 1996 and he was its director from 1998 to 2004. He was president of the European Association of Geriatric Psychiatry between 2003 and 2004 and he was Member of the Board of Directors of the International Psychogeriatric Association from 2004 to 2012. He was involved in the sections for Old Age Psychiatry of the World and European Psychiatric Association. Since 2019 he has been the Chair of the Section of Old Age Psychiatry of the WPA and a counsilor for this section in the EPA, respectively. Treating mentally ill elderly people with dignity, humanity and the greatest possible freedom was close to his heart, especially in primary medical care. He initiated and contributed to several policy articles and books and took part in conferences and webinars.
With his death we loose a great voice of old age psychiatry.