By Phenyo Mokgothu and Mzwandile Ndlovu
A two-year initiative aimed at improving the screening and management of perinatal mood disorders in rural communities is being piloted in the North West.
The project, Capacity Building in Managing (Perinatal) Mood Disorders in Rural South Africa (CaBu-PeriMooD), was introduced during a recent meeting and workshop hosted at North-West University’s (NWU’s) Mahikeng Campus.
The programme brings together the North West Department of Health, Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital, the NWU and Germany’s Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin to strengthen maternal mental health services through training and stakeholder coordination.
Addressing weaknesses
The partnership targets key weaknesses in perinatal mental health care, including limited provider training and low community awareness in underserved areas, said Dr Angel Phuti, an associate researcher at Charité’s Department of International Health and Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.
“South Africa continues to face significant challenges in delivering effective perinatal mental health services,” she added, explaining that this project aims to capacitate healthcare workers to manage patients with mood disorders, including those linked to pregnancy and postnatal care.
Funding has been secured from the German Hospital Partnership Network, facilitated through the German government’s Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.
Planned activities at facilities and in communities include structured training programmes, the development of clinical manuals and training materials, and task-sharing approaches that integrate community health workers into maternal mental health care.
Charité representatives outlined international approaches to mood disorders and perinatal mental health care, including models used in Germany. They discussed clinical systems that support continuity of care and improved intervention pathways for mothers, including mother-and-child-focused care practices.
Backing from the provincial health department
“As the Department of Health, this project will have our support,” said Dr Mpho Diking-Mahole, senior clinical manager at the Klerksdorp Tshepong Hospital Complex, who represented the department. She said the provincial department will treat CaBu-PeriMooD as a pilot, with plans to extend the approach if outcomes are positive.
The pilot will involve the Bophelong Psychiatric Hospital, Mahikeng Provincial Hospital, emergency medical services, community healthcare workers and allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Prof. Patience Kovane, senior lecturer and research coordinator within the NWU's Faculty of Health Sciences, said the CABU group plans to develop a programme that is sustainable. “We are going to educate community health workers - ’lay people’ - to recognise perinatal mental health and be able to deliver cognitive behavioural therapy at their level,” she said.
Prof. Kovane said they would collaborate with organisations in communities, including churches, to educate them. Through this engagement they will also learn to communicate in language people can understand because mental health terminology can be complex to comprehend.
Community awareness is critical as women in rural settings often face barriers such as stigma, limited screening services and resource constraints in healthcare facilities, said Prof. Rorisang Machailo, deputy director of the NWU’s School of Nursing.
Through local and international collaboration the NWU is working towards developing local solutions to improve the lives of some of the country’s most vulnerable people, rural women.
Prof. Patience Kovane, senior lecturer and research coordinator within the NWU's Faculty of Health Sciences
Prof. Rorisang Machailo, deputy director of the NWU’s School of Nursing
