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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

International Association of Hydrogeologists strengthens ties with IGS
2015-03-31

 

From the left are: Prof Neil Heideman, Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Mr Shammy Puri, secretary-general of the International Association of Hydrogeologists, and Prof Danie Vermeulen, Director of the Institute for Groundwater Studies.
Photo: Supplied

The Institute for Groundwater Studies (IGS) is in the process of establishing a SADC Groundwater Management Institute, sponsored by the World Bank. To coincide with this process, the IGS received a visit from Mr Shammy Puri, the secretary-general of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH).

“The aim of the visit was to further cooperation between the IAH and IGS regarding transboundary aquifers in the SADC region,” said Prof Danie Vermeulen, Director at the IGS.

The International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH/AIH) is a scientific and educational charitable organisation for scientists, engineers, water managers, and other professionals working in the fields of groundwater resource planning, management, and protection.  The IAH is the leading international society for the science and practice of hydrogeology, and is a globally recognised information source and facilitator for the transfer of groundwater knowledge.

Mr Shammy Puri was elected Secretary-General of IAH in 2008, and chaired the Commission on Transboundary Aquifer Resources Management (TARM) from 1998 to 2011.

During his visit, Mr Puri also presented lectures to the postgraduate students at the Institute on Transboundary Aquifers. He was also invited by the Dean of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Neil Heideman, to present the faculty prestige lecture later this year.

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