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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

Young dynamic lawyer in the Mail and Guardian Top 200
2016-06-27

Description: Adv Loyiso Top 200 M and G Tags: Adv Loyiso Top 200 M and G

Adv Loyiso Makapela
Photo: Stephen Collett

Each year the Mail and Guardian produces a special report on that year’s top 200 young South Africans who inspire, have talent, and drive. This year, we celebrate one of our own, Adv Loyiso Makapela, who has been nominated as one of the top 200 Mail and Guardian Young Achievers of 2016 under the category of Education. Loyiso is an outstanding academic, lecturer and mentor. At age 27, she is the youngest lecturer in the Faculty of Law.

With two Master’s degrees under her belt, she has been awarded the Desmond Tutu Doctoral scholarship by the National Research Foundation and will commence her PhD at both the University of Stellenbosch and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam July 2016. With a keen focus on research, she has presented papers and chaired sessions at various conferences locally and internationally in, for example, the United Arab Emirates and Greece, and in Oxford, England.

“The fact that I was nominated under the category ‘Education’ is undoubtedly one of my proudest achievements to date, because there is nothing I am more passionate about and love than the education of young South Africans, particularly women. This is only the beginning, and I hope my story and accomplishments will inspire others to walk out in determined pursuit of their goals and dreams,” said Loyiso.
She is in the final stages of launching a lifestyle website that aims to engage young and ambitious South African women, titled “Young Women of Power”. Through this platform, Loyiso hopes to bring together influential women in business and politics, to empower and enlighten younger women.

The Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans have, over the years, positioned themselves as leaders in their fields and gained local and international acclaim. The selected 200 will be announced later this month.



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