SU – MEGA | Building capacity by implementing mhGAP mobile intervention in SADC countries

Partner meeting in Cape Town

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 06:22:19 +0000

The 6th face to face MEGA partner meeting, organised by the team from Stellenbosch University, took place between 25 and 27 September 2019. The meeting was held at the Protea Hotel by Marriott in the Cape Town suburb of Durbanville. Twenty-seven attendees, representing all nine of the partner universities took part.

The sessions were interactive and stimulating and resulted in the successful finalisation of the content for the data collection application and work packages four and five. Potential future collaborations were also discussed. On the last day of the meeting, a ‘Train the Trainers’ session was held. The participating primary healthcare practitioners found this to be informative and enjoyable and appreciated being consulted on the training content. They also expressed appreciation for the need for the training. We too are grateful for their willingness to be a part of the MEGA project.

A meeting dinner was arranged at the Radisson Blu Hotel at the Waterfront, where participants got to enjoy the sun and sea while experiencing some of the local cuisines. Fortunately, the unpredictable Cape Town weather played along, making this an enjoyable experience. We hope that after this little taste of Cape Town attendees will come back for more!

Training of trainers workshop in Cape Town

admin — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 14:02:05 +0000

On the 27^th of September 2019, the highly anticipated MEGA “Training the Trainer” workshop was held in Cape Town. In the months leading up, we had worked hard to incorporate all the valuable feedback from primary health care workers and students from Zambia, South Africa and Germany who had taken part in the piloting phase. Participants of the training course in Cape Town consisted of designated future trainers from within each of our partner universities in South Africa and Zambia and (to much of our delight!) a number of local primary mental health care workers. The HAW team conducted the training course and was met with a highly motivated and engaged group of trainees and a lot of expertise already at hand.

Throughout the lengthy preparation phase for the training, there was a growing awareness that the MEGA training needs to offer learning opportunities for a heterogeneous group of trainees with diverse educational and cultural backgrounds. We, therefore, tried to produce compact learning material consisting of sound information about youth mental health issues in a way that opens up a space for discussion and reflection, Most of all we want to equip practitioners with a new skill – how to use the MEGA app. The MEGA curriculum is split up in modules and trainers follow a manual in the form of a powerpoint presentation, which guides them step-by-step through a 6-hour training course. In order to guarantee a level of standardization, trainers should orientate towards the notes and follow the curriculum as much as possible. However, if there is a lack of time, the principle “less is more” applies. If the group of trainees is fairly advanced, the (online) material offers a variety of further readings.

The results of a short evaluation questionnaire all participants filled out after the training day show that the MEGA “Training the Trainer” course in Cape Town proved to be a success. Trainees enjoyed the mix of presentation, large and small group discussion and the hands-on practice session using the app in a role-play setting. They gave valuable feedback for the final revision of the MEGA app, which was appreciated by our partners from Riga who are launching the final version of the app. The MEGA trainers are ready to rumble and the MEGA team is excited to roll out the MEGA training in February 2020!

Meet the team – Stellenbosch University (SU)

admin — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 04:30:02 +0000

Stellenbosch University (SU) is home to an academic community of 29 000 students as well as 3 000 permanent staff members on five campuses. The University is amongst South Africa’s leading tertiary institutions based on research output, student pass rates and rated scientists, and is recognised internationally as an academic institution of excellence.

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.