Capacity Building Update for SMhINT South Africa

UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL (UKZN), SOUTH AFRICA SMHINT YEAR 2 PROGRAM REPORT

A close collaboration with the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Department of Health has led to a co-creation of the South African Capacity Building Component.
Requirements for Capacity Building trainees was they had to work for the Department of Health in a management capacity and be interested and involved in management of mental health care services. This process led to the selection of 16 participants who are involved in the governance of mental healthcare in the province, at district and provincial levels. The group includes representatives from the provincial mental health and substance abuse directorate, as well as from each district in the KwaZulu-Natal province. The names and details of the final group is as follows:

An introductory, two-day workshop was held at a venue in Salt Rock, Ballito, where intensive and participatory discussions took place, resulting in the identification of a set of core issues to be included in the proposed curriculum. The content was refined and discussed further with the provincial mental health leadership, leading to a core curriculum.
The curriculum consists of five contact sessions and includes an introductory session on implementation research; planning strategies and skills for integrated mental healthcare, including developing theory of change to guide implementation and evaluation; implementing integrated mental healthcare strategies using continuous quality improvement; monitoring and evaluation; and how to disseminate and communicate findings and plans; and a graduation ceremony where individual projects will be presented by mentees.
Background materials will include implementation science learning materials from the recently launched implementation science short course presented by the Department of Global Health, University of Washington; the WHO TDR implementation science resources; and various online resources in continuous quality improvement, monitoring and evaluation. Following the completion of contact session 2, all participants will be allocated to mentors according to geographical region and mentorship needs. In between contact sessions, mentors will regularly meet with participants in their respective regions to provide technical support.

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania SMhINT Year 2 Program Report Year 2 was a kick off year for most of the activities in Tanzania. We began by involving stakeholders who will work with us to support implementation of the project. These includes policy makers in the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children (MOHCDGEC), and health managers from two municipal councils for the Dar es salaam and Mbeya Regions. During this time, we were able successfully engage a relevant focal person at the Ministry, the Head of the NCD Department Dr. Sarah Maongezi

Capacity Building Update for SMhINT Mozambique

18th October 2020

Health Alliance International, Beira Operations Research Center (CIOB) Mozambique SMhINT Year 2 Program Report Health Alliance International (HAI) collaborates closely with a trans-disciplinary research consortium of academics, government representatives, and non-governmental organizations in Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa, to build implementation science and dissemination research (ISDR) capacity in global mental health. In this consortium, HAI strives to meet activities highlighted under Aim 3 of the project, intended to provide real-world research opportunities, mentorship, and necessary knowledge to conduct implementation science to inform the scale-up of evidence-based integrated mental health care in Mozambique. Year 2 marks the successful completion of a