UCT – 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 – University of Cape Town

admin — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 07:41:36 +0000

UCT aspires to be a world-class African institution, and in line with that vision our Department endeavours to be a leading Department of academic excellence that produces transformative and integrative teaching, research, healthcare and public service relevant to mental illness and well-being in local, African and global contexts.

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.