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.

“We are kindly requesting your participation in the research study titled “Building Capacity by implementing mhGAP mobile intervention in SADC countries”.

Two questionnaires need to be administered, namely the: Demographic and Mental Health Literacy Scale. Before you decide whether or not to take part in this study, we would request that you read the information sheet on the purpose of this study, benefits, and risks to you, and what is expected of you. If you agree to take part, you will be asked to sign a consent form. Your participation in this study is entirely voluntary; you are under no obligation to participate. You should be aware that the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee of the University of Zambia has approved this study.

The first reaction in most instances was to look at the length of the questionnaire and to compare it with the workload at hand. All potential participants responded by indicating that “two long questionnaires against the long queue of clients/patients waiting to be attended to is difficult to do”.   Team A was amazed at the assertiveness of one nurse who requested the researchers to assist with screening the patients while she answered the questionnaire considering that she was the only one present at the Health Centre.  The response was almost the same with Team B. Surprisingly once the process started, the response was good, with only a few clarifications and questions raised. The process is yet to be completed in the urban health centres, in Lusaka Province the capital city for Zambia.

Project Coordinator Mari Lahti and Project Investigator Joonas Korhonen had a productive time with the UNZA and LAMU teams. They had the opportunity to visit both universities and hold meetings with the partners. In addition, the UNZA team had arranged visits to the emergency ward, medical-surgical ward and cancer hospital of the university hospital.

UNZA had also organized an opportunity for the TUAS team to spend an afternoon in Chainama mental health hospital. The visitors were able to meet the director and discuss the future needs in mental health screening and patient care in Zambia. They were also invited to visit female and male acute wards, talk to nurses and meet patients.

Based on this visit to a first-level hospital and a mental health hospital, it is obvious that there is an urgent need to screen and assess the mental health issues on primary health care level, which is in accordance with the UN and WHO agendas.