The free webinar can be accessed on the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental health Youtube channel here

Date: 14 April 2020

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is leaving a myriad of unanswered questions in its wake - and many pf these relate to the mental health of populations under lockdown, quarantine or self-isolation. The ill effects that this pandemic can have on the global mental health burden should not be underestimated - even more so in low-resource settings such as most countries on the African continent.

On 14 April 2020 there was a free webinar on the mental health aspects of the Covid-19 crisis in Africa. The four invited speakers each presented.

Speakers & Topics

Prof Chiwoza Bandawe

Topic

Coping with anxiety and stress related to Covid-19

Biography

Chiwoza Bandawe, MSc/PhD, is an associate Professor in the department of mental health at University of Malawi's College of Medicine. His areas of interest and expertise include Social Psychology, cultural aspects of human behaviour and mental health competence, Indigenous African Psychology and mental health education.

Prof Dixon Chibanda

Topic

Psychological and psychosocial care for people directly affected by Covid-19

Biography

Dixon Chibanda started the Friendship Bench in one of Harare’s townships called Mbare in 2007 and conceptualized the first Friendship Bench intervention that has now been refined and adapted considerably.
He has been involved in mental health research for many years. Dixon is a key player in bringing the various stakeholders from local health authorities, health professionals, national and international researchers and donors together to form successful collaborations.
In his role as PI, he has led the Friendship Bench team through the rigorous exercise of the randomized control trial (RCT) which was able to deliver evidence for the intervention’s effectiveness. He is currently leading the team as they scale-up the Friendship Bench to over 60 primary health care clinics in the country.
Dixon Chibanda is Associate Professor at the Centre for Global Mental Health and the Director of the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI).

Jose Luis Ayuso-Mateos MD, PhD

Topic

Availability and provision of essential mental health services to allow continuity of care for those in need: Lessons from Spain

Biography

Jose Luis Ayuso-Mateos MD, PhD. Chairman at the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Mental Health Services Research and Training at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He is also Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Hospital Universitario de la Princesa (564 beds), in charge of the organization and management of all the public mental health services covering an attachment area with a population of 323,000 citizens in downtown Madrid. He is currently in charge of the design and coordination of all the consultation psychiatry and psychological support programmes developed to provide services for Covid-19 patients either admitted at the hospital or at home, their relatives and/or caregivers, and the health staff.
Dr Ayuso-Mateos is part of a team of international experts assigned by the WHO and ILO to estimate the attributable risk of depression related to long working hours exposure. He is the Principal Investigator of the “European platforM to PromOte Wellbeing and hEalth in the woRkplace (EMPOWER)” project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. He is also the PI in the ongoing SYNCHROS and ATHLOS EU projects and Deputy Scientific Director of the CIBERSAM research network.
He is a member of the International Advisory Group for Training and Implementation for ICD-11 and works with the WHO in the dissemination of the Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP).

Dr Simone Honikman

Topic

“Messages for Mothers” and other mental health responses to COVID-19 for mothers in South Africa

Biography

Dr Simone Honikman is the Director of the Perinatal Mental Health Project and Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town (Ashoka Fellow).

She has a medical degree and an MPhil in Maternal and Child Health from the University of Cape Town. She has worked as a medical officer in England and South Africa in psychiatry, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology and HIV medicine. In 2002, she founded the Perinatal Mental Health Project, currently located within the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UCT. She has collaborated in several global mental health research consortia and has published journal papers and book chapters on maternal mental health pertaining to: epidemiology, service systems development, screening tools and provider training.

She is a board member of International Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health and sits on the leadership committees of Global Alliance for Maternal Mental Health and the African Alliance for Maternal Mental Health. Simone contributes to several World Health Organisation initiatives.