The reality of mental healthcare in South Africa is one that is often overlooked. With the fact that infectious and non-communicable diseases are rife and placing an already enormous burden on the health system, these often take precedence over mental healthcare. With mental health conditions rising in South Africa, particularly among young people, together with a sustained stigmatization of such disorders, something needs to be done to stem the tide.
October is Mental Health Awareness month and with that came the announcement that the Youth Health Economics Focal - a team located within the SAMRC’s Health Systems Research Unit (HSRU), was one of 11 teams in the UK and South Africa to be awarded the Mental Health Data Prize funded by the Wellcome Trust and Social Finance- UK.
The data prize forms part of an open competition or challenge where participants use data to find solutions to complex issues and can be especially powerful for areas blocked by siloed research fields, where funding is limited, or when there is a lack of motivation because progress has slowed.
This prize seeks to use data to transform how science solves urgent health challenges and societal problems and was open to teams in the UK and South Africa who are exploring existing data to find new insights and build digital tools that enable future research.
The Wellcome Data Prize in mental health is supporting collaborative approaches to research into anxiety and depression in young people. The Positive Minds study is being led by Dr Darshini Govindasamy (Specialist Scientist: HSRU) and her multidisciplinary co-investigator team at HSRU-SAMRC (Mr Stanley Carries, Prof Arvin Bhana) and Stellenbosch University (Ms Audrey Moyo- co-PI, Mr Lovemore Sigwadhi, Mr Reuben Moyo and Prof Peter Nyasulu).
The goal of their project is to co-create a digital tool for assessing common mental health problems among young people in SA.
In Stage 1, the team will examine the social determinants of depressive and anxiety symptoms among young people using multi-level modelling techniques and machine learning methods. The team will leverage a South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN) longitudinal dataset that has been specifically assembled for this grant call. This dataset includes data from three SAPRIN nodes, spanning the 1990s to 2022. This rich dataset will allow the team to study how changes at the household-level (e.g., food insecurity, parental socio-economic factors) impact the mental health of young people in South Africa.
The field team which includes: Mbalenhle Msweli, Zibuyisile Mkwanazi, Nokwanda Sithole, Graham Ebrahim and Phumzile Zondi, are currently arranging a series of workshops with young people who will serve as lived experience experts on this project.
To read more about the Wellcome Data Prize | Click HERE