Primrose Nyamayaro is a mental health researcher interested in depression and neuropsychology research. She received training in the applied nature of mental health research in her undergraduate and master’s degrees. This laid a solid foundation for the work she has been engaged in for the past five years in Zimbabwe. This included feasibility and effectiveness trials on the interface between HIV and mental health, funded by various international organisations including the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her interest in neuropsychology research led her to validate an app based cognitive screener that can be used by lay counsellors to assess patients living with HIV as her doctoral research study.

Mental health community engagement for people living with HIV

People living with HIV are more likely to have common mental disorders such as depression, which has negative outcomes on antiretroviral therapy medication adherence. Neurocognitive impairment affecting day to day functioning is also prevalent. This community engagement project aims to engage persons living with HIV and their support networks in participatory methods that empower them with mental health knowledge to improve their treatment outcomes. Their opinions, insights and lived experiences, when coupled with the researcher’s knowledge have the potential to empower communities to effectively utilise the outcomes of health research. However, with the existence of an engagement gap between researchers and HIV service users in the mental health field in Zimbabwe this has not been possible.

Therefore, the objectives are to engage persons living with HIV and their support networks in i) focus group discussions and workshops where the most current mental health research outcomes in Zimbabwe and the African continent are shared; ii) discussions around their opinions and perceptions around mental health and their effects on their lives; iii) sharing their opinions and expectations from the research community in fun collaborative ways; and iv) coming up with HIV service users inspired mental health education awareness messaging materials for dissemination. Input from the community will greatly aid the creation of valid strategies that will ensure that research outcomes and outputs will be beneficial to them.