Centre celebrates Africa through its work

Poster project: PRIME has become a major initiative for the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health.

Today, 25 May, is Africa Day, marking the official founding of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.

As part of its own programme to commemorate UCT's Celebrating Africa Month, the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health (CPMH) has, over May, been showcasing its work to the public, and specifically the research and academic communities at UCT. (The Centre also contributed to the Africa Month exhibit at the Baxter Theatre centre on 24 and 25 May.)

A good example of how the Centre has taken its work beyond research and into the policy realm is through the PRogramme for Improving Mental health care (PRIME), a cross-country research programme funded by the UK's Department for International Development. PRIME works with Ministries of Health partners to translate its research into mental health policies and programmes.

At the end of April, staff FROM the CPMH ALSO took part in South Africa's National Mental Health Summit.

Through its programmes, the Centre operates in eight African countries, namely Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe; as well as in India and Nepal.

The CPMH is a joint initiative between the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UCT and the Department of Psychology at Stellenbosch University.