Multi-million Rand research award for UKZN scientists
UKZN scientists were awarded a grant for their cutting-edge study.
SCIENTISTS from UKZN’s College of Health Sciences received a R12.8 million grant from the South African Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Council UK/Newton Fund for a UK-South Africa Joint Initiative on Mental Health.
The award will fund the implementation of a three-year multidisciplinary global health research study on first-episode psychosis with participants from Msunduzi Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
Psychotic disorders are common conditions (with a lifetime prevalence of four per 1000) that contribute significantly to the global burden of disease and are associated with high morbidity, disability, health costs and lost economic productivity.
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Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Health Sciences, Professor Busisiwe Ncama said, “I would like to congratulate the principal investigators, Professors Chiliza and Burns and the whole team for securing the grant. Mental health has been identified as one of our research focus areas. We are therefore very excited about the news of this grant, but most of all, we are looking forward to the impact that this research will have on the lives of people, especially mental health services.”
The study titled, PSYchosis MAPping in KwaZulu-Natal (PSYMAP-ZN), aims to generate evidence that will improve understanding of psychosis within a sub-Saharan African setting by addressing the incidence rate, clinical presentation, and associated risk factors of psychosis as well as the impact of the social, economic and physical environment on incidence rates, onset and presentation of psychosis in this setting. It will also assess the help-seeking behaviours and pathways to care of people with psychosis and their families or caregivers in this setting.
The grant will be managed by the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP).
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