Anthony Sefasi

University of Malawi | UNIMA · Department of Mental Health

As part of the formative work of the SUCCEED Africa consortium, we followed a participatory process to identify existing gaps and resources needed for the development and implementation of a rights-based intervention for people with lived experience of psychosis in Malawi, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. In 2021, we conducted a desk review of p...

Malawi has a population of around 20 million people and is one of the world’s most economically deprived nations. Severe mental illness (largely comprising psychoses and severe mood disorders) is managed by a very small number of staff in four tertiary facilities, aided by clinical officers and nurses in general hospitals and clinics. Given these c...

People with psychosis in Malawi have very limited access to timely assessment and evidence-based care, leading to a long duration of untreated psychosis and persistent disability. Most people with psychosis in the country consult traditional or religious healers. Stigmatising attitudes are common and services have limited capacity, particularly in...

List of Studies that investigated mental health issues in Malawi (1988-2021)

Background: Mental health research is essential in the implementation of evidence-based interventions. This can be impeded by unavailability or limited access to local evidence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Malawi. Aim: The aim of this systematic mapping was to describe the availability, extent and distribution of mental heal...

Purpose The World Health Organisation found depression to be the fourth leading cause of disability in Malawi (Bowie, 2006) with the prevalence of mental health need in children and young people in Malawi estimated between 10 and 30% (Kutcher et al. , 2019). One option to address this was to provide schoolteachers with skills and knowledge related...

Malawi is located in the southern part of Africa with a population of more than 16 million people. The country is ravaged with HIV and AIDS epidemic of which the prevalence rate is at 14%. The people who have HIV/AIDS are also affected by mental and psychological disorders. Nevertheless, very little is known about mental health care of people who h...

Introduction We recruited patients with schizophrenia four weeks post-discharge from Zomba mental hospital and followed them for six months to find out if care and support had an impact on their staying well and avoid relapse in their local communities. Objective To establish skills and knowledge family members hold to take care of their schizophr...

HIV may affect the elderly in a number of ways. They may become infected themselves; their children may suffer prolonged illness and incapacity, and need the elderly to look after them; the same children may then die from the illness, leaving the elderly without the support of the next generation; this bereavement also leaves the older people to me...

To determine the relationship between schizophrenia knowledge and burden of care among caregivers of people with schizophrenia in Mzuzu, Malawi. We recruited 90 patients and 90 caregivers to a randomized, controlled trial of group caregiver education in schizophrenia. At baseline, we administered the Family Questionnaire, which measures caregivers'...

Insight, psychopathology and functioning are related in schizophrenia, but it is unclear whether insight relates independently to functioning after controlling for psychopathology. Equally, any such relationship may vary culturally. We investigated the relationship between insight, psychopathology and functioning in 60 patients with schizophrenia i...