The voices of children and adolescents is a cornerstone of the work we do in shaping our mental health strategies.
By Tumelo Kgoloko
Free, flexible training empowering community workers to equip youth mental health with practical, evidence-based skills.
CAMHI South Africa is an initiative launched by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Centre at the Child Mind Institute.
We have partnered with the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), local experts, universities, community organisations and civil society to advance evidence-based solutions that strengthen youth mental health in South Africa. We work with local partners to expand access to effective mental health services and resources, enhance training opportunities for professionals and lay people who work with youth, and support innovative, scalable, context-sensitive and culturally appropriate responses to promote the mental health of young people in South Africa. Support for this work is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) as part of its Global Health Initiative (GHI).
Enhance capacity for delivering science-supported mental health care.
Explore our locally informed tools, programs, and guides designed to support mental health care for children and adolescents across South Africa.
Our training programs equip you with tailored strategies to support children’s and adolescents’ mental health in South Africa, aligning with your background to enhance your skills and positively impact young people’s well-being within your professional scope. Explore and elevate your impact today.
We offer short guides tailored to various caregiver and adolescent profiles, providing culturally relevant coaching on managing emotions and life situations. These resources support effective, empathetic responses to the unique mental health needs of children and adolescents.
We provide mapping resources designed to benefit communities across South Africa, developed in collaboration with local partners to ensure relevance, accessibility, and meaningful impact at the grassroots level.
We are developing a youth program for adolescents aged 13–17, offering monthly sessions to discuss mental health challenges and explore ways to drive positive change for young people across South Africa.
This report captures the perspectives and recommendations of young people from the CAMHI Youth Council who participated in the SNF Global Center Expert Gathering in Cape Town. Youth emphasized that meaningful change in mental health systems requires moving beyond simply including young people in discussions to actively involving them as co-creators of research, programs, and policies. They called for mental health initiatives that reflect the cultural and lived realities of young people in Southern Africa, clearer communication of research findings, stronger community-based support, improved data on child and adolescent mental health, and better training for educators and frontline workers. Above all, they stressed the importance of valuing lived experience and fostering genuine collaboration between youth, communities, researchers, and governments.
The training is designed for teachers, school-based educators and other school-based staff interested in strengthening their mental health literacy and psychosocial support skills.
Self-Paced Online Training
The PSP is delivered through an asynchronous digital platform, allowing educators to complete the training at a time and pace that works for them.
Mental Health Literacy Training for Educators Supporting educators to promote the mental health and wellbeing of learners. Building mental health literacy. Strengthening support. Supporting learner wellbeing. What is the Psychosocial Support Programme (PSP) in Schools? The Psychosocial Support Programme (PSP) is an evidence-based training programme designed to support teachers and other school-based staff in promoting the mental […]
CAMHI Care is an important part of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Initiative (CAMHI), focused on improving access to mental health support for children, adolescents, and their families. We believe that every young person deserves access to care that is compassionate, trustworthy, and within reach.
