Auther of health solutions

Prof Petra Bester, director of AUTHeR.

of healthcare solutions

AUTHeR

Meet the

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Why work alone on community projects when you could achieve so much more by joining forces with the NWU’s Africa Unit for Transdisciplinary Health Research (AUTHeR)?

This unit is doing ground-breaking research in a number of fields, and has the expertise and commitment to offer all the faculties and schools of the NWU ideal opportunities to work with them on specialised projects and programmes, as well as community engagement initiatives.

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A decade of AUTHeR

A decade of AUTHeR

The research entity has been functioning for more than 10 years and was the first research focus area of the Faculty of Health Sciences on the Potchefstroom Campus.

It has since had considerable success and can boast six spin-off entities for the faculty.

They are the Centre of Excellence in Nutrition (CEN), the Hypertension in Africa Research Team (HART), Physical Activity, Sport and Recreation (PhASRec), Quality in Nursing and Midwifery (INSINQ), Occupational Hygiene and Health Research Initiative (OHHRI) and Community Psychosocial Research (Compres).

Collaborating to better lives

AUTHeR has 12 international collaborations in eight countries. The majority of these collaborations strive to strengthen research skills, methodology, content development, external moderation and combined funding efforts.

The entity has eight active national collaborations, from the Phokwane Municipality in Vaalharts (home of the WINLab) to corporate industry. “These collaborations enable AUTHeR to enter communities, undertake combined research projects and place students for work-integrated learning.

"The win-win nature of these collaborations is empowerment for the participating communities,” says Prof Petra Bester, AUTHeR director.

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In addition to conducting research, AUTHeR also presents teaching-learning and work-integrated learning (WIL) platforms, making the unit a leader in sustainable community engagement projects. These projects strive to promote sustainability and ensure that the community is an equal member of the research team.

The AUTHeR research unit’s mission is to play a significant role in addressing complex health challenges, not only in Southern Africa but also internationally. Prof Petra Bester, director, says they believe tackling health challenges necessitates a holistic approach. “We see people in their holistic context: body, mind and soul and within society.”

She says this is exactly why AUTHeR is an ideal partner for all the NWU’s faculties and schools when embarking on projects to better the lives of communities. The research entity explores bio-psychosocial health in an epidemiological context to prevent illness, maintain and promote health and facilitate quality health systems. With a transdisciplinary approach, community members and researchers from different disciplines become active partners in promoting health and well-being.

“Making a difference cannot be done in isolation. We build trusting relationships with communities, working closely with them to assess their needs and discover the day-to-day health challenges they face,” says Müller Spies, project manager.

Apart from AUTHeR’s considerable research skills, they also have distinctive strengths in community engagement and teaching-learning. These skills and strengths are available to assist faculties and research entities wishing to make a meaningful impact through community engagement.

“Faculties know that community engagement must happen but they don’t always know how to structure it and it is here where AUTHeR can play a valuable role,” says Dr Nicole Claasen, lecturer.

“Funding applications locally and internationally require more and more different disciplines working together, touching on real-life problems that are very complex,” explains Nicole.

“We as AUTHeR have expert knowledge and a health and well-being perspective on how to create multi- and transdisciplinary projects and we are open for collaboration with any faculty.”

Petra echoes this by inviting all faculties and schools within the NWU to contact them with suggestions and collaboration opportunities. For more information, phone AUTHeR at X99 2095 or visit http://www.nwu.ac.za/health-sciences/auther.

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Alternative Food and Energy Project

Alternative Food and Energy Project

To gain a holistic view of how food systems influence the economy, from production to the consumer, it is important to mobilise many different disciplines. In this project, AUTHeR works together with Environmental Management from the School of Spatial and Geography in the Faculty of Natural Sciences. They also have the School for Agricultural Sciences and Faculty of Law, among others, looking into aspects of food security and the rights associated with it.