South Africans are in dire straits as a vast part of the economy shut down and the country went into lockdown for months. As a result of job losses and businesses closing down, millions of people are going hungry every day. Worldwide, mental illness has been on the rise, and anecdotally, the pandemic is further compounding the situation. Read More
Training of Free State nurses commenced on a beautiful sunny Friday in January 2020. The Free State MEGA team conducted two training workshops, one on 31 January 2020 and another on 7 February, at the School of Nursing, University of the Free State. Read More
As the MEGA app is continuing development, the training materials for nurses on mental health and health care are ready for testing and implementation. The pilot test was carried out by the UFS team in actual settings. The training was conducted in a boardroom of the Heidedal Community Health Centre (CHC) at the Pelonomi Hospital in the Free State province. Despite the clinics being busy with their daily work, the training was prioritised, and one nurse and one social worker of the clinic were released for the pilot training for one full day. Read More
Between 4 October and 6 November 2018, the University of the Free State team has completed data collection among nurses for the first stage of the MEGA project. Read More
It is clear that there is need for more training on mental health issues for nurses in public health care according to the very preliminary findings from the MEGA project survey conducted in the Mangaung Municipality. This was our message in the 7th Annual Free State Provincial Health Research Day held on 9 November 2018, at the University of the Free State. Read More
The objective of the 3-year MEGA project is to develop and introduce an assessment tool to be used on a smartphone to help treat mental health problems of children and adolescents. The application will be designed to be user-friendly so that primary health care centres in rural areas benefit from it as well. The project will train individuals in the use of the application in universities, who in turn will train healthcare staff in South Africa and Zambia. The project also involves research activities, namely: a doctoral dissertation and Master student thesis. Read More
