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10 October 2018 | Story UFS
UFS School of Nursing gets funding for mental health project
Ronelle Jansen received research funding to provide adolescents with improved access to mental health services and care.
Ronelle Jansen from the School of Nursing at the University of the Free State (UFS) received research funding as part of a multistakeholder capacity-building project to provide adolescents with improved access to mental health services and care in PHC (primary healthcare) settings. 

The research aims to develop and implement a mobile mental health (mHealth) application screening tool for primary healthcare workers (PHCW) to identify adolescent mental health problems and provide mental healthcare training. 

Under pressure 

Jansen (UFS team leader) says mental health screening is sometimes lacking at the clinic level, because the clinics are so busy. “PHCW are under huge pressure due to the number of people they have to see every day, and due to severe staff shortages.

“There is, amongst others, a huge amount of paperwork that needs to be completed for each patient. The nurses only get about 10 minutes to see each patient and mental health screening is seen as time consuming.”

Early identification 

Jansen says the mHealth tool will focus on adolescents and they hope that the mobile application will help nurses with early identification of mental health problems. The clinic staff will then be able to treat and refer the patient correctly. 

She says they hope an accessible and user-friendly mobile tool will also help to motivate PHCW to more regularly screen for mental health problems.

This research is a three-year project co-funded by the Erasmus + programme of the European Union. Nine universities will collaborate on the project. Other partner institutions include the Turku University of Applied Science in Finland (project coordinator); Hamburg University of Applied Sciences in Germany; Riga Technical University in Latvia; the universities of Stellenbosch; Cape Town; Pretoria; the University of Zambia and the Lusaka Apex Medical University.

Jansen says the benefit of the research may be that PHCW will be better empowered to screen for mental health problems, with the aim to improve adolescent mental healthcare and train competent PHCW.

News Archive

Wayde runs 100 m personal best in Slovenia
2017-06-21

Description: Wayde runs 100 m personal best in Slovenia Tags: Wayde runs 100 m personal best in Slovenia

Wayde van Niekerk is in great form leading up to the
World Championships in London in August.
Photo: Charl Devenish

“This also bodes well for my two main distances." This is what Wayde van Niekerk said according to www.iaaf.org, after running a personal best time of 9.94 in the 100 m in Velenje, Slovenia, on 20 June 2017. The Kovsie athlete improved his previous best by 0.04 seconds at the 22nd International Athletics Meeting.

Van Niekerk was referring to the other distances in which he excels – the 200 m and 400 m. The 400 m world record-holder said he was pleased with his latest run: "It's my best time and I'm glad the competition ended the way I wanted it to.”

National 200 m record and world’s fastest in 2017
His feat in the 100 m was his latest success, as he recently became the national record-holder in the 200 m again, and also the fastest man on the planet in this distance in 2017. After he ran a 19.90, the world’s fastest this year, when he won the South African title in Potchefstroom in April, the American Christian Coleman (19.85) improved on that.

However, Van Niekerk ran a 19.84 in the 200 m at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, Jamaica, on 11 June 2017. This was 0.06 seconds quicker than his personal best, and 0.03 seconds better than Anaso Jobodwana’s national record of 19.87.

Same pace a second time in a week
It was also the second time in a week that he ran a 19.84 in the 200 m. This after he did it on a temporary built track at the Boost Boston Games on 4 June 2017. The race was run on a straight street course and was therefore not officially recognised as a record.

He seems to be in good shape leading up to his attempt to run a double, his favourite 400 m and the 200 m, at the World Championships in London, England, in August.

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