Students in the Faculty of Health Sciences are trained by 600 academic staff members located in four schools, namely Dentistry, Healthcare Sciences, Health Systems and Public Health and Medicine. Training is in partnership with the Gauteng Health Department in Steve Biko, Kalafong and Weskoppies Hospitals and Mpumalanga’s Witbank Hospital and its community.

From left to right:

Dr Gerhard P Grobler, the principal psychiatrist and head of the clinical unit Psychiatry at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, in partnership with the Department of Psychiatry. He is the co-investigator and national lead in South Africa, as well as a lead researcher & project manager for the MEGA project.

Tumisang Chiloane is a research assistant at the University of Pretoria and has also been involved in the MEGA project as a trainer for participating clinics at the UP site.

In the MEGA project, the UP team is responsible for the implementation and evaluation of the mobile application, which involves establishing contact with the relevant political and health care authorities at the selected health care districts in South Africa and Zambia.

The healthcare workers at participating sites in Pretoria have been trained and are equipped to initiate the implementation of the MEGA mobile application. The post-evaluation of the training suggests that the primary healthcare workers are comfortable with incorporating the MEGA app into their daily practice. They will require some technical support and regular visits to troubleshoot any issues pertaining to the use of the app.

From right to left:

Prof. Dan Stein, Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health. He is a clinician-scientist, educator-mentor, and advocate-leader in the fields of neuroscience and mental health.  His specific focus for more than two decades has been on anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, and trauma- and stress-related disorders (i.e., anxiety and related conditions). He has contributed to the field via collaboration, mentorship, and publication.

Dr. Adele Pretorius, Senior Programme Manager in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. She is a Clinical Psychologist and holds a PhD in Biosystems Engineering. She has been managing large multi-site research studies in the Department since 2014. Previously, she has managed multi-national projects related to human performance and safety in the private sector in South Africa.

Deborah Jonker, Project Manager and PhD student in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. She is a research psychologist with an interest in integrative transdisciplinary approaches to neuroscience and public mental health. Her PhD focuses on the complications arising from prenatal substance exposure and maternal mental health risk factors on children in early life.

Weslin Charles, Research Assistant in the Department of Psychiatry & Mental Health. She has been involved in various mental health research projects for the past 10 years with a specific focus on the impacts of substance use on children in the South African context.

The UCT team is enthusiastic to be a collaborator in this partnership that will aim to integrate both good practice and science to design a mobile health application to screen for common child and adolescent mental health problems in primary health care (PHC) settings.

The University has a student population of about 26,000 students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels with approximately 300 academic staff members and support staff. The University offers more than 157 programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The school of Nursing Sciences is one of the 13 Schools of the University of Zambia. The School offers both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Clinical Nursing, Maternal and Child Health, Community and Global Health, and Psychiatry and Mental Health Nursing. The School runs both onsite and distance programmes for undergraduates. The Erasmus+ MEGA Project is hosted within the Mental Health Department of the School. The Project is run by a team of five staff members who are responsible for the dissemination related activities which is Work Package 8 of the MEGA Project. In addition, team members participate and contribute to all the other work packages of the project.

The Profile for each team Members is given below:

1. Mwape Lonia is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zambia. She is the Vice-President of the General Nursing Council of Zambia and is a Vice-Chair of the National Research Ethics Board. She leads the MEGA project for UNZA.
2. Katowa-Mukwato is a Senior Lecturer at the University. She has specialized in teaching and learning of clinical skills, simulation & knowledge translation. She is a project manager and controller in the MEGA project.
3. Ms Wahila Ruth is a Head of Department of Basic and Clinical Nursing Sciences at the University. She is also a lecturer and PhD Candidate. She fulfils the role of the researcher in the project.
4. Chapima Fabian is a lecturer at the University of Zambia and a PhD fellow. He is a Researcher role in the MEGA project.
5. Mumbuluma Peterson is a member of the Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants and a fellow of ACCA. His role in the MEGA project is to ensure that accounting and financing issues in the project at UNZA goes smoothly and within the approved budget.

From left to right:

Prof Soraya Seedat is Distinguished Professor and Executive Head of Department of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University. She is the Principal Investigator for the Stellenbosch site.

Dr Sharain Suliman is a research psychologist and postdoctoral researcher in psychiatry. She is the project co-ordinator.

Dr Leigh van den Heuvel is a psychiatrist and PhD student who is acting as project manager for the Stellenbosch team.

Sr Irene Mbanga is a Mental Health Nurse with a Nursing Admin Diploma. She has been involved in various mental health research projects for the past 20 years and is the trainer for SU site.

We are hopeful that the project will lead to improved access to mental health services and enhanced mental health care for youth in South Africa and Zambia.

The International Projects Unit (IPU) of the International Cooperation and Foreign Students Department, RTU, is involved in numerous international initiatives, which aim to raise capacity within the field of higher education and promote the exchange of best practices between program and partner countries. MEGA is one of these initiatives and for the purposes of this project the IPU team is responsible for developing a mobile application for primary healthcare specialists in the Republic of South Africa and Zambia.

Mr Timo Turunen heads up the managerial aspects as well as monitoring the development phase of the application. Timo ensures that the RTU team is on track to meet all deliverables.

Mr Kārlis Valtiņš is in charge of research and intellectual development of the application. Kārlis makes sure that RTU team has sufficient research data to develop the application and support the development phase of the project.

Ms Ieva Kudiņa manages technical matters and the development of the application. In addition, Ieva participates in the mobile application content analysis to ensure the project delivers the best outcomes.

Ms Anete Beinaroviča is the leading analyst of the RTU team. Anete assists the RTU team to deliver the required milestones by analyzing data, processing MEGA documents and helping to develop the mobile application.

Ms Vera Lipsta is in charge of administrative matters and assists the RTU team with data collection from other MEGA partners to ensure that mobile application is being developed to suits the specific needs of both South Africa and Zambia.

The MEGA team at HAW is made up of two longstanding colleagues working alongside one another in the Department of Social Work. Gunter Groen, a psychologist and psychotherapist for adults, adolescents and children, holds a professorship of Psychology (clinical psychology and child psychotherapy) since 2010. His main teaching emphasis is on Clinical Psychology/Psychiatry and Developmental Psychology. As a qualified and licensed psychotherapist, he has longstanding experience in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy with children, adolescents, adults and families. He worked for several years as a therapist in a child and adolescent psychiatry clinic and in private practice. He has published a number of psychotherapy guidelines and intervention material, especially for depression in children and adolescents, that combines a science-based approach to the understanding of mental (ill) health with an emphasis on the meaning of recovery and a person-first approach. He has extensive research experience regarding the promotion of child and adolescent mental health in youth welfare services and clinical child psychology (e.g. integrated services for children with challenging behavioural and emotional problems; interprofessional collaboration between child psychiatry and youth welfare services; prevention of anxiety disorders; prevalence of mental disorders in adolescence, prevention of depressive disorders in adolescence, use of ‘suicide internet forums’ and pathways to mental health care for refugees).

Astrid Jörns-Presentati has been a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Work since 2013. Before she joined the HAW, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Manchester and did her postgraduate studies in the Social Work Master’s program at the HAW. Her fields of expertise in teaching include undergraduate courses in developmental psychology, an interprofessional collaboration between mental health and child and youth welfare services and Recovery-oriented approaches in mental health. She has worked in a number of national and international research projects that focused on interprofessional collaboration between social work and child and youth psychiatry/psychotherapy and is currently pursuing her doctoral thesis with the same emphasis.

In the MEGA project, we are responsible for developing, piloting and conducting the train-the-trainer course for primary health care workers. Furthermore, we are responsible for monitoring ongoing activities in regard to a quality plan specifically developed for the MEGA project.

TUAS is investing in pedagogical modernization of higher education. It develops and implements multi-field innovation pedagogy with a focus on Research, Development and Innovation (RDI), flexible curricula, entrepreneurship and internationality. When students actively participate in applied RDI activities during their studies, it increases their readiness to operate successfully in working life. Thus, TUAS is experienced in mental health nursing education on BA and MA levels. Master-level studies are focused on Advanced Nurse Practioner (ANP) training. Mental Health Nursing studies are following the idea of innovation pedagogy. Co-operation with service user organizations and experts by experience are highlighted in the studies.

Mari Lahti, PhD, Post Doc., is a research leader in the Health Promotion research group and an active member of the research group aimed at Empowering Children and Young People of TUAS. She has done her academic dissertation in the faculty of medicine at Turku University, department of nursing science. The title of her academic dissertation was “Evaluation of an e-learning course: Coercion practices in psychiatric nursing”. Her research interests are in mental health nursing education, mental health promotion, and youth mental health.

Heikki Ellilä, MN.Sc, PhD, is a registered general and mental health nurse. He currently works as a principal lecturer in post-graduate studies in the Department of Health and Wellbeing in Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS) and as a clinical teacher in the Psychiatric Clinic of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland. He is one of the founders of the first Master’s level programme (Advanced Nurse Practitioner) in mental health nursing in Finland. He is a founding member of the Horatio- European Association for Psychiatric Nurses and was a member of the board of the Co-operation of psychiatric nurses in Nordic Countries (PSSN) for 7 years. He is chair of the Finnish Association for Mental Health Research and Development.

Joonas Korhonen, RN, MNSc, is a Full-Time Lecturer at Turku University of Applied Sciences (TUAS). He has started his scientific career in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nursing Science in Turku. He has a strong clinical background in mental health care. His special knowledge and skills are related to nursing education, psychiatric care and substance abuse. He has extensive work experience in psychiatric care, including psychosis care and substance abuse in acute and rehabilitation settings. He has been a member of Executive Board of Department of Nursing Science and a member of the Board of Faculty of Medicine of the University of Turku.

Anita Narbro is IPMA certified project manager with experience working in international projects. In MEGA project her role is to support the project manager with project management tasks. She assists within the coordination of the project consortium, planning activities of the project, negotiations with financier as well as budgetary issues.

Arina Kiseleva works as a project controller in TUAS. She is working as controller and coordinator in different international and national research and development projects in Finland. In this project, she is responsible for financial reporting and provides administrative support inside the organization and between partners.