CRH was formed in 1987 by the National Association of Medical and Dental Activists (NAMDA), an organisation which was formed in reaction to the Medical and Dental Association. At that point CRH was called CHESS (The Centre for Health and Social Studies); CRH was funded by foreign donors and the centre existed primarily for research and advocacy. CHESS was linked to the Department of Paediatrics under Professor Jerry Coovadia, and based at the University of Natal.
In 1994 Professor Hugh Philpott, a leading expert in Maternal Health took over directorship. Other key changes at this time included access to local funding, a change in the focus of the organisation’s interventions to the district health system, and a growing commitment to taking up the challenge of rural health care. In 1998 Professor Steve Reid, a rural health activist of long standing and experience, took over the helm. In 2001 the name of the organisation changed to the Centre for Rural Health (CRH), expressing the organisation’s growing commitment to improving the health care offered to impoverished people living in rural and underserved areas.
2004 saw further change as a number of universities based in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal merged to form the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). CRH is now located within the School of Nursing and Public Health within the college of Health Sciences.
Professor Inge Petersen assumed the role of Director in 2016.
The ambit of the CRH has since expanded to encompass the UKZN strategic thrust areas and includes research and programmes in Health Systems Strengthening, Human Resources for Health and Health and Social Justice.
Professor Inge Petersen
Professor Inge Petersen is a Research Professor and Director of the Centre for Research in Health systems at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, as well as Visiting Professor at the Global Health Institute, University College London and Honorary Professor at the Knowledge Translation Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town. She has extensive expertise in health systems strengthening for integrated primary health care and community health, with an emphasis on mental health care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Professor Petersen is internationally recognized as a leader in global mental health, being a WHO advisor to the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region’s strategy to Scale up Action on Mental Health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2014); Lead author for Population and Community Level Interventions for Disease Control Priorities for mental, neurological and substance use disorders (3rd edition); Expert panel member on mental health at a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine Board of Health Science Policy in Accra on Global Health Risk Framework: Developing resilient and sustainable health systems to respond to global disease outbreaks (2016); as well as on the COVID Ministerial Advisory Group on Mental Health (2022). Professor Petersen’s main body of work has been on co-developing and testing mental health innovations and implementation strategies for integrating mental health care into primary health care along the life course within real world district health service delivery contexts. Leveraging learning collaboratives across multiple levels from community through to PHC facility, district managerial and provincial levels within a learning health system approach has enabled an iterative approach to co-development, testing, and refinement of implementation packages for integrated mental health care for adults with common mental health conditions in South Africa. This body of work is being scaled up in the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province in collaboration with the KZN Department of Health in South Africa through the Primary Health Care Transformation Committee (KZN PHCTC), as well as to other provinces through the ANOVA Health Institute. This body of work is currently being expanded to include developing and iteratively testing district health system strengthening innovations for greater community care of people with severe mental health conditions; as well as developing district-wide integrated primary mental health care services for children and adolescents. In addition to this body of work on mental health, Prof Petersen is engaged in research on strengthening the health system to be enabling of people-centred health care, inclusive of mental health. She is currently Principal Investigator of a UK MRC award on strengthening the community sub-system for people-centred care in South Africa, and a co-Principal Investigator for ENHANCE (Evidence led co-created health systems strengthening interventions for multiple long-term conditions (MLTC-M) in two provinces in South Africa funded by the UK NIHR.
Our focus areas include:
HEALTH SYSTEMS STRENGTHENING
Focusing on innovation and service delivery improvement within resource constraints and extending to improving governance, participation and universal access.
HUMAN RESOURCES FOR HEALTH (HRH)
Focusing on pre-service health professions education and in-service workforce preparedness, including the necessary organizational support and human resource management to meet the needs of the under-served, and changing demands placed on the health care system by the changing disease profile towards chronic care.
HEALTH AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Extending the focus to social determinants of health such as poverty, hunger and food security, illiteracy, social equity and development, migration and eco-health.
Our Vision and Mission
To be at the forefront of innovative knowledge production and human capital development that promotes learning health systems in resource-scarce contexts.
