Did you know that 1 in 4 South African youth experience depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder? But many don’t know about the help available to them, while those who are aware do not always get the help they need. According to StatsSA (2022), results of the South African National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey showed that 24% of youth between Grade 8 to Grade 11 had experienced feelings of depression, hopelessness and sadness, while a further 21% had attempted suicide at least once.

In KwaZulu-Natal, as well as nationally, the prevalence of mental health challenges among adolescents and young adults continues to increase, with the majority of these mental health challenges not being adequately treated. The Asenze Impilo Project aims to change that. Through a collaborative effort, we’re working with adolescents and young adults, their caregivers, and service providers to co-design an intervention that will improve mental health and psycho-social support services in KwaZulu-Natal. Using a Human-Centered Design approach, we aim to understand real experiences, develop targeted solutions, and enhance existing care models—because mental health matters.

The Asenze Impilo is a new study at HEARD; it is a sub-study to the Asenze longitudinal project that has been running in waves since 2008 under the Centre of Rural Health at UKZN. Our Asenze Impilo study forms part of Asenze Wave 5 and aligns with one of their aims, which is to “qualitatively explore the impact of changes in the Social Determinants of Health on adolescents and young adults’ mental health. A series of nested qualitative studies will provide an in-depth, complementary, and contextual understanding on adolescents and young adults’ mental health during and after COVID-19 and perceptions of the acceptability and appropriateness of interventions that target mechanisms and key populations identified in Aim 2”.

Aim 2 of Asenze Wave 5 stipulates that the study aims to “Identify mechanisms underlying the relationship between SDOH and mental health, such as family-level factors (e.g., caregiver mental health) and how these vary across characteristics (e.g., gender, HIV and orphan status, COVID exposure), using a causal inference approach to mediation and moderation to identify potential points of intervention and key populations to reduce risk and foster resilience”. We will contribute to this aim by identifying the potential points of intervention through collecting and analysing lived experiences of adolescents and young adults, and insights from service providers and caregivers.

It will be exciting to explore various ways to improve mental health services for our young people in KZN!

Background to study investigators:

Thokozile Mbaya is the Project Lead. She is a Population Scientist. Her PhD thesis investigated the role of the Anglican church in addressing women’s sexual health challenges in Cape Town. She is passionate about women’s and girl’s health and their well-being. She has been involved with local government and organisations that focus on youth research such as MatCH, SAMRC, HST, eThekwini municipality and the Department of Social Development empowering young girls and boys with skills and knowledge. She also volunteers for the South African Depression and  Anxiety Group (SADAG) as a lay counsellor.

Nonjabulo Gwala is a Research Assistant with a background in Data Science, Quantitative Analytics, Health Economics, and Monitoring and Evaluation. She holds a master’s degree in Medical Science (Public Health) which investigated the cost and cost-effectiveness of eLearning interventions for healthcare workers in low- and middle-income countries. She has also contributed to projects on behalf of UNICEF, focusing on water and sanitation, COVID-19, and mental health awareness campaigns for school learners in KwaZulu-Natal.