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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

UFS provides an alternative route to a BEng degree
2014-06-04

Mr Louis Lagrange
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

The university is very excited about the establishment of a new study field at Kovsies – a BSc degree with majors in Physics and Engineering subjects. The course is presented in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Project EnSci was established at the UFS at the beginning of 2014. Twelve first-years and four second-years enrolled for the course this year.

“We replace the non-core Physics subjects with Engineering subjects. We also present all specialist Engineering subjects ourselves,” says Louis Lagrange, project manager of Projec EnSci – Engineering Science.

“There isn’t enough space at universities in South Africa to accommodate all students who are interested in engineering. The UFS course can thus be considered a fundamental engineering course. It equips a student in such a way that they will be able to specialise in various disciplines,” he says.

After completion of the three-year BSc degree at the UFS, students may choose to:

• graduate with a BSc degree majoring in Physics and Engineering subjects and enter the professional world.
• study further for an honours, master’s or doctoral degree in Physics.
• apply to register for a second degree – BEng or BScEng (for two additional years) at another university recognising the BSc degree with majors in Physics and Engineering Science. Acceptance is subject to certain requirements.

Matriculants interested in this field, must follow the application procedure of the UFS before 30 September 2014 and achieve the following in the final NSC or equivalent examination:

• an AP score of 34 or more is strongly recommended,
• cumulative AP score of 13 or more in Mathematics and Physical Science,
• completion of NBT tests and
• language of instruction – 4 or more.

These prospective students also need to complete and submit an application form. For more information contact us at engineeringsubjects@ufs.ac.za


 

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