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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

Diligence to be rewarded at the 2015 Spring Graduation
2015-09-15

The hard work of many students finally comes to fruition with this year’s spring graduation ceremonies taking place on Thursday 17 September 2015 on the Bloemfontein Campus.

A total of 124 diplomas, 419 bachelors and 56 honours degrees will be conferred on graduates from all seven faculties of the University of the Free State (UFS). In addition to the 599 conferrals, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, the world-renown American economist, will round out the number to 600 as the recipient of an honorary doctorate.  

The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences wishes to express appreciation for his extensive contribution towards economic, social, and political development across borders with an honorary doctorate in Economics.

Prof Sachs has had a positive impact on global peace and security, climate change, sustainable development, human rights promotion, and governance through various platforms, including being a Special Advisor to United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). He also served as the Secretary-General’s MDG Advocate and Commissioner of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)/United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Broadband Commission for Development.

In addition, Prof Sachs serves as the Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. As an author, he has featured three times on the New York Times bestsellers list, and is the co-founder of the Millennium Promise Alliance, and drives the Millennium Villages Project as its Director.

Graduates should expect words of salutation and encouragement from our main speaker, the Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the university, Prof Jonathan Jansen.

Two ceremonies will take place in the Callie Human Centre at 09:00 and 14:00 respectively. Attendees of the afternoon ceremony will witness the conferment of Prof Sach’s degree. There is a live stream option available on the university’s website to individuals who are unable to attend the ceremonies.


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