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In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHeS), and the Mental Health Users and Carers Association (MEHUCA), we officially launched our newly awarded grant, the Mental Health Data Prize – Africa 2024. This prestigious initiative is administered by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and funded by Wellcome Trust and aims to generate data-driven insights to advance understanding of anxiety, depression, and psychosis across Africa.
The MEIRU team, led by Dr Owen Nkoka, is one of ten teams selected across the continent to implement transformative projects under this initiative. Together, these projects seek to strengthen mental health data systems, identify contextual drivers of mental illness, and support evidence-informed policy and practice. MEIRU’s participation represents a significant step toward integrating mental health into public health priorities in Malawi and contributing to a broader continental effort to improve mental health outcomes.
The MEIRU-led project focuses on strengthening mental health research and services in Malawi through the analysis and visualisation of large-scale data on depression and anxiety. The project will integrate data from more than 25,000 individuals across rural and urban Malawi, drawing on three key sources: the Healthy Lives Malawi Long-Term Conditions Survey, the Generation Malawi Birth Cohort, and data from MEIRU’s Mental Health Clinics.
Using these datasets, the project will identify key risk factors, barriers to care, and mental health-related mortality to inform targeted interventions and policy responses. A key output will be the development of the MEIRU-Viewer, a free digital platform designed to make mental health data accessible and actionable for researchers, clinicians, and policymakers.
