Students in the Faculty of Health Sciences are trained by 600 academic staff members located in four schools, namely Dentistry, Healthcare Sciences, Health Systems and Public Health and Medicine. Training is in partnership with the Gauteng Health Department in Steve Biko, Kalafong and Weskoppies Hospitals and Mpumalanga’s Witbank Hospital and its community.

From left to right:

Dr Gerhard P Grobler, the principal psychiatrist and head of the clinical unit Psychiatry at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, in partnership with the Department of Psychiatry. He is the co-investigator and national lead in South Africa, as well as a lead researcher & project manager for the MEGA project.

Tumisang Chiloane is a research assistant at the University of Pretoria and has also been involved in the MEGA project as a trainer for participating clinics at the UP site.

In the MEGA project, the UP team is responsible for the implementation and evaluation of the mobile application, which involves establishing contact with the relevant political and health care authorities at the selected health care districts in South Africa and Zambia.

The healthcare workers at participating sites in Pretoria have been trained and are equipped to initiate the implementation of the MEGA mobile application. The post-evaluation of the training suggests that the primary healthcare workers are comfortable with incorporating the MEGA app into their daily practice. They will require some technical support and regular visits to troubleshoot any issues pertaining to the use of the app.

Two years later Mari and Heikki met Ronelle again, this time in Pretoria, during the kick-off meeting of the project. The funding (EUR 1 million) came from the Erasmus+ Capacity Building programme. The primary objective of the project is to improve the mental health of children and young people in southern Africa, particularly in South Africa and Zambia, by developing a mobile phone application for early detection of mental health problems. The app can be used in primary health care services in the most remote regions. During the three-year project, the intention is to teach employees to use the new app by arranging innovation pedagogical training both for higher education teachers and primary health care professionals. After this, the app will be piloted in South Africa and Zambia in six provinces. In addition, the project involves a number of research activities.

In addition to Mari Lahti and Heikki Ellilä, Senior Lecturer Joonas Korhonen from TUAS, the Faculty of Health and Well-being, participated in the project meeting. Anita Narbro and Arina Kiseleva from TUAS RDI Services also work in the project. Kaisa Jokela and Jari Hietaranta participated in drafting the application and planning the project. Many thanks to all the participants. The other participating universities are Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) from Germany, Riga Technical University (RTU) from Latvia, the University of Zambia (UNZA) and Lusaka Apex Medical University (LAMU) from Zambia, and the University of Pretoria (UP), University of Cape Town (UCT), Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of Free State (UFS) from South Africa.

Representatives from all partner universities participated in the kick-off meeting. The participants’ expertise in mental health work is of extremely high level and their commitment to the project is also strong. The meeting took three days and was full of lively discussions and teamwork. Working with a large group is challenging. The discussion tends to meander and a range of different viewpoints are highlighted. However, in this meeting a consensus was reached regarding main directions and plans for proceeding were outlined. During the evenings, all participants got to know one another while having dinner together. There was luckily enough free time to visit some local sights, go to theatre and attend a small-scale safari.

We would like to thank our Pretoria host, Dr Gerhard Grobler, who took care of all arrangements, additional programme and us, the foreign visitors. As a “host of most”, his hospitality was beyond comparison.