Page 55 - SAMRC Annual Report 2023-24

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Risk and Resilience in Mental
Disorders Research Unit

Unit director:
Prof. Dan Stein

Prioritising responsive research disorders in our local context seems to be increasing
through impactful interventions but has been poorly studied to date. Therefore, we
undertook a thorough survey of universities across
Our work in the SAMRC Unit on Risk & Resilience the country and brought the attention of universities
in Mental Disorders focuses on mental health. There to this data.
is growing awareness of the high prevalence and
costs of mental health conditions; these conditions Equitable capacity development
contribute to a significant proportion of the global for empowering communities
and local burden of disease. Furthermore, as we
successfully combat infectious diseases, so we can Our unit has a strong focus on capacity development,
expect that the contribution of non-communicable with significant deployment of funds to support
diseases, including mental disorders, will continue student fellowships. We are also keenly aware of the
to increase. There is also an important need need for diverse researchers, that represent the local
to transform health services to address mental population, and strive to reach that profile.
disorders. Our work contributes to generating new First, this is increasingly seen in the profile of our
knowledge in this area, to technology development, students, postdoctoral fellows, and staff. Second,
to building capacity, and to translating research into examination of the achievements of past mentees of
policy and practice, in this area. the unit indicates that many black researchers who

Our work ranges from basic neuroscience, on to have been members of our unit are now national and
clinical research, and from there to epidemiological international authorities in their own right (including
and public mental health studies; that is from bench experts in posttraumatic stress disorder, substance
to bedside, and from the clinic to the community. use disorders, neurogenetics, forensic psychiatry,
Our research is diverse, ranging from contributions mental health epidemiology).
to nosology and epidemiology, to brain imaging and Science for creating a
neurogenetics, and on to cohort studies and clinical
trials. This diverse portfolio is appropriate, given healthier society
our focus on building knowledge, technology, and First, our Mental Health Information Centre continues
capacity, in order to transform services. To elevate to play a key role in translating our work to relevant
the quality of our work, we also collaborate widely stakeholders and the public. It does this through
across the country, continent, and globe. continuous liaison with the media, through taking
direct calls from members of the public, and via its
We advanced work on a number of projects during ongoing focus on increasing mental health literacy
the reporting period. First, we continued our work and decreasing stigmatisation of mental disorders.
on psychiatric epidemiology, continuing to analyse
the country's first national survey of mental health Second, we work with the Western Cape
among university students. The problem that this Department of Health on several different projects,
work seeks to address is that the prevalence of mental attempting to bring research outputs to services.

SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2023-24 53