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Dr Rukudzo Mwamuka is a Zimbabwean specialist psychiatrist with a Bachelors in Medicine and Surgery degree and Master of Medicine Psychiatry degree from the University of Zimbabwe. She has clinical experience providing care to mental health patients from marginalised communities in Zimbabwe. Dr Mwamuka also has experience scaling up of psychological interventions for depression gained from leading implementation of the Friendship Bench intervention. Her clinical and programs experience ignited her interest in the research area of improving treatment outcomes for patients with depression using task shifted treatment approaches. Her current research work as PhD student at the University Hospital of Psychiatry Bern, Switzerland seeks to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of nurse-led antidepressant prescribing alongside the Friendship Bench intervention in Zimbabwe. Her PhD work is also supported by DELTAS Africa as a PhD fellow under the African Mental Health Research (AMARI) at the University of Zimbabwe. Rukudzo’s passion to raise mental health awareness and empowering communities especially those with lived experience of mental health conditions led her to incorporate a community engagement in her research project. Her community engagement with science project, Brush Strokes of Well-being, is supported by funds from the Science for Africa Foundation. Brush Strokes of Well-being seeks to co-create and collaborate with people with lived experience of depression throughout the life cycle of the research project using art as a medium to foster dialogue
Current Community Engagement Project
My project is titled “Brush Strokes of Well-being". The project seeks to gain insights from community members with lived experience of depression on how treatment and care for depression can be improved at primary care level in Harare, Zimbabwe. In the project the research team co-creates and collaborates with people with lived experiences and key research community stakeholders. The co-creation process is done throughout the life cycle of the research project through insights from the advisory group and consultative meetings. In collaboration with artists, some with lived experience of depression, art therapy sessions were incorporated into the consultative meetings to work as medium for dialogue with a secondary therapeutic benefit. Insights from the meetings have ensured that the voices of people with lived experience are included in the research and the outcomes of the research are meaningful to the community. One of the highlights of the project will be an art exhibition curated by professional artists and non-professional people with lived experience in commemoration of the world mental health day.
