Latvia – MEGA | Building capacity by implementing mhGAP mobile intervention in SADC countries https://mega.turkuamk.fi The web site is a communication channel for MEGA project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union Mon, 18 Oct 2021 11:41:10 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.18 The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic https://mega.turkuamk.fi/the-effects-of-the-covid-19-pandemic/ Fri, 16 Oct 2020 07:00:19 +0000 https://mega.turkuamk.fi/?p=1531 Just like any global project, Erasmus+ KA2 MEGA was heavily affected by COVID-19 and the travelling restrictions caused by the pandemic. At the beginning of the year, MEGA was approaching the last and most important milestones of the project. Based on the initial project timeline, 2020 was going to be the final year to implement the remaining part of the project activities. Many activities that had already begun suddenly reached a critical stage and, stopping them completely, could cause long-term damage for the overall project. Unfortunately, one of the most critical deliverables – “Field testing of the MEGA app” – was also among the activities whose execution risked being put to a halt completely.

After numerous video calls among the project consortium, it was clear that each partner country is sliding into national lockdown. These lockdowns were limiting domestic and international mobility, causing the consortium to make a decision to postpone the planned project meetings in South Africa until the situation stabilizes. Unfortunately, it is still unclear whether the project consortium will be able to implement any of the remaining face-to-face meetings.

What kind of actions has MEGA taken to tackle the damaged caused by COVID-19?

As a consortium that mainly represents the healthcare field, MEGA was in an advantaged position to understand the impending pandemic. Therefore, the MEGA consortium was prepared to implement some rapid changes in order to soften any possible damage caused by COVID-19. The first step was to ensure the safety of project participants and partners. This is why the MEGA consortium decided to cancel all physical meetings in Europe and Africa, transferring all the remaining project meetings to online platforms. Implementation of activities which were intended for the general public (e.g. seminars, trainings) was tackled by establishing tailor-made materials, which would replace the initially planned physical meetings and seminars.

The situation with piloting the MEGA mobile application was a bit more complicated, due to limited interaction with project stakeholders caused by the pandemic. As the MEGA app had to be tested in real-life settings by project stakeholders (nurses, clinical officers, etc.), the consortium could not use any digital tools or online platforms to replace the face-to-face testing period. However, the MEGA consortium strongly believes that the health of the primary healthcare specialist is more important than the overall project results. Fortunately, nurses in several South African and Zambian clinics were able to use the MEGA app while fulfilling their daily duties and, thus, the project was able to collect the necessary data.

What can MEGA and other KA2-projects/EU learn from the pandemic?

The pandemic period has been an excellent learning curve for both the funder and the beneficiaries. Communication during the lockdown period has shown that almost all partners have access to a solid internet connection and online tools. However, we have observed that consortiums (not only MEGA) are not advancing these tools as often as they could. Therefore while planning new projects, e-toolkits should be more commonly used.

As it is still quite difficult to predict when the current pandemic will end, consortiums need to advance the lessons learned and work on implementation strategies that are more reliant on different e-solutions. Fortunately, the MEGA consortium has already taken many necessary steps to become more virtual. Thus, project funder could collect these case studies and develop guidelines on how to develop a virtual working environment and how to shift work online.

The risk assessment will be more closely reviewed while preparing new projects. The future project consortiums have to practice out of the box thinking and be prepared for situations, which might not even happen. Therefore, also the funder should put more emphasis on risk assessment plans and closely review how the future projects are estimating possible risks. Project consortiums have to be ready to tackle unexpected issues.

]]> Partner meeting in Riga https://mega.turkuamk.fi/partner-meeting-in-riga/ Thu, 14 Feb 2019 08:13:29 +0000 https://mega.turkuamk.fi/?p=767

The MEGA partner meeting in Riga marked the end of the 1st year of the project and many important decisions were made regarding further development of the mobile application as well as the training and data-collection phases of the project. It took place from the 14th to the 16th of November 2018 with partners from Finland, Germany, Zambia and South Africa visiting Riga Technical University (RTU) to continue working on the project that commenced in October 2017.

During the meeting the first data-collection results from South Africa were presented by the University of the Free State, marking a new stage in the MEGA project. Since then, other partners from South Africa and Zambia have commenced and implemented data-collection in their regions, providing essential data for further progress of the project.

Numerous important steps were taken in terms of the dissemination of the project activities. Informative videos were made with each partner explaining a topic relevant to the project and the first project newsletter was created and published in the MEGA project website as well as on social media. Colourful MEGA T-shirts, bags, notebooks, smartphone screen-cleaners and other promotional materials were distributed among the partners to advance the dissemination activities in all partner countries and make the MEGA logo more and more recognizable.

A very important part of the meeting was the development of the MEGA mobile application. RTU presented the current status of the app and discussions were held on the necessary adjustments and improvements that need be made. The meeting was a crucial milestone in the project development process, with many important decisions made regarding the final version of the app.

An important part of any capacity building project, such as MEGA, is the exchange of expertise among the partner countries. To inform the partners about the current situation and challenges in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry in Latvia, a presentation and discussion was delivered by Dr. Nikita Bezborodov, one of the leading child psychiatrists in Latvia. Despite the geographical location, many similar challenges and problems can be observed in Latvia, South Africa and Zambia, proving that the impact of MEGA could go far beyond the borders of the countries in question.

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