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PsySSA 2022 Webinar Series – Webinar 3: Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa: Provocations & Possibilities

PsySSA 2022 Webinar Series – Webinar 3: Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa: Provocations & Possibilities

by | Jul 15, 2022 | 2022 Webinar Series: Facing the Future with Psychology: Perspectives, COVID-19

About this webinar:

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided another moment in media, popular and scholarly discourse to visibilise the extent, persistence, and consequences of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. While the most recent statistics indicate a decline in the rate of femicide between 1999 and 2017 – we know that GBV and femicide continue to be an ongoing, impervious problem for South African women, sexual and gender diverse and non-conforming persons, limiting our freedoms and the true attainment of gender equity. In this current moment, we turn renewed and ongoing attention to the question of gendered violence and femicide and ask: What are the everyday knowledges and practices that we need to refuse and unsettle toward provoking change toward freedom? What and where are the possibilities for building a non-violent future?

 

Meet our Chair & Panellists!

Chairperson: Prof Floretta Boonzaier

Floretta Boonzaier is Professor of Psychology at the University of Cape Town, and co-Director of the Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa. She is noted for her work in feminist, critical and postcolonial psychologies, research on subjectivity in relation to race, gender and sexuality, work on gendered and sexual violence, and decolonial research methodologies. She was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Psychology in Society (PINS) from 2018 to 2021. She is a past UCT Mandela Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University and a past recipient of the runner up award in the South African Department of Science and Technology’s Women in Science awards, for the category of Distinguished Young Woman Researcher in the Social Sciences or Humanities. She serves on the Board of Mosaic Training, Service and Healing Centre for Women, in Cape Town and the African Gender Institute and Huma Institute at the University of Cape Town. She is also an Executive Committee Member of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa. Her recent publications include the co-edited volumes Engaging youth in activism, research and pedagogical praxis. Transnational and intersectional perspectives on gender, sex and race (Routledge, 2018), Decolonial Feminist Community Psychology (Springer, 2019 ), Men, Masculinities and Intimate Partner Violence (Routledge, 2020) and the co-authored book, Pan-Africanism and Psychology in Decolonial Times (Palgrave Macmillan, in press).

Panellists

Dr Benita Moolman is a senior lecturer and programme manager at the Global Citizenship Programme at the University of Cape Town. I have a D.(Phil )in Feminist Geography from University of California, Davis (UCDavis) and a M(Phil) in Women and Gender Studies from University of the Western Cape. I have worked at the Human Sciences Research Council and at Rape Crisis Cape Town. I currently teach on social justice, decoloniality, gender-based violence and critical, community engaged research methodologies. I have researched and published on gender-based violence, masculinities, intersectional identities and feminist methodologies. I am interested in decolonial and feminist pedagogies, as well as thinking through African epistemologies and situated knowledge-making. My most recent publication is a co-edited collection with Nadia Sanger, entitled : Racism, Violence, Betrayals and New Imaginaries: Feminist Voices, 2022, University of Kwazulu Natal Press


Savuka Matyila is a gender non-conforming human rights activist born in Mdantsane, Eastern Cape. With over a decade’s experience working with civil society organisations, Savuka’s work targets legal, clinical, educational, and community-based fronts, through both local and international spheres. A degree in Sociology and Philosophy; and Gender, Religion and Health (Hons) studies inspire Savuka – to seek out possibilities of community consciousness that affect the overall psychosocial and economic livelihood of LGBTIQ+ people, and their families. Savuka hopes to progress the championing of efforts that secure the further realisation of dignity and wellbeing, inherent for everyone within the world of gender and sexual diversity.

Kaylynn Palm is a versatile reporter with a decade of experience in the field. She cut her teeth as a cub writer for the community papers straight out of university. It’s here, she believes, that she built invaluable skills and contacts while on the crime, investigative and community beat. It also laid a solid foundation for her leap towards an equally successful career in radio years later. A former Eyewitness News reporter, Kaylynn knows well the dynamics of a fast-changing and demanding news cycle. Her knack is finding the story behind the story and human behind the headlines. Nowhere is this more pertinent than when covering an array of stories including the tales of gender-base violence, the hard-felt impact of the real crime statistics and the realities of the Cape’s most marginalized and neglected families. Not just a talented wordsmith, Kaylynn’s also an acclaimed multimedia journalist. She may have hung up her radio mic, for now, but her activism hasn’t been silenced. It’s taken on a new form in her role as Gender Based Violence co-ordinator and communications officer at civil rights organization, Action Society.

 

Tarisai Mchuchu-MacMillan is an African-feminist, Advocate and crime and violence prevention specialist focussed on violence against women and violence against children. Tarisai, currently is the Executive Director of MOSAIC Training Services and Healing Centre for Women, an NPO that advocates for preventive laws and policies to be advanced to effectively reduce gender-based violence, in particular domestic, sexual and intimate-partner violence. Tarisai designed the SAFE-PR programme currently being piloted by MOSAIC, which is the main subject of the chapter. The SAFE-PR project is focussed on ensuring that women’s rights to safety in relationships, homes and communities is advanced by strengthening duty bearers and first responders who make up the security, justice, and psychosocial support services system in response to domestic violence (DV) and intimate-partner violence (IPV). MOSAIC coordinates localised multi-stakeholder platforms made up of first responders to domestic violence and intimate partner violence in communities and works with them to increase capacity to respond through a gender transformative lens by building relationships amongst local multi-stakeholder frontline responders in a coordinated manner that enables better service response for victims of DV/IPV, ensuring that protection orders protect and further harm is prevented. Tarisai completed her B.A. (2006) and LL.B. (2010) degrees at the University of Cape Town and is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.  

 

Click here to register and join us!
PsySSA 2022 Webinar Series – Webinar 3: Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa: Provocations & Possibilities

PsySSA 2022 Webinar Series – Webinar 3: Gender-Based Violence and Femicide in South Africa: Provocations & Possibilities

by | Jul 6, 2022 | 2022 Webinar Series: Facing the Future with Psychology: Perspectives, COVID-19

About this webinar:

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided another moment in media, popular and scholarly discourse to visibilise the extent, persistence, and consequences of gender-based violence and femicide in South Africa. While the most recent statistics indicate a decline in the rate of femicide between 1999 and 2017 – we know that GBV and femicide continue to be an ongoing, impervious problem for South African women, sexual and gender diverse and non-conforming persons, limiting our freedoms and the true attainment of gender equity. In this current moment, we turn renewed and ongoing attention to the question of gendered violence and femicide and ask: What are the everyday knowledges and practices that we need to refuse and unsettle toward provoking change toward freedom? What and where are the possibilities for building a non-violent future?

Click here to register and join us!
PsySSA Commemorates SANCA Drug Awareness Week 2022

PsySSA Commemorates SANCA Drug Awareness Week 2022

by | Jun 21, 2022 | COVID-19, Mental Health Advocacy

While many have recognised mental health as the second pandemic resulting from the loss lives and isolation that accompanied the Covid-19 pandemic. Excessive drug use has been a major problem in South Africa even prior to the Covid-19, in particular alcohol, tobacco, and other illicit drugs such as tik, mandrix, and nyaope.  Covid-19 appears to have further exacerbated the use of drugs such as alcohol, with most people having struggled with their mental health leading to increase use in substances.

The World Health Organisation has noted not only does South Africa have one the highest prevalence rates of mental illness with 30% of all adults likely to experience a mental disorder in their lifetime. Coupled with the high rate of substance abuse in particular that of alcohol in which South Africa is ranked 6th in the world in terms of consumption, making the issue of mental health and substance abuse critically important.

As we commemorate drug awareness week it is important to keep in mind the effects that substance abuse has on lives of people. The physiological effects of substance abuse such as liver disease and has other social effects such as road accidents while also contributing to increase burden of diseases such as HIV. The impact of substance abuse on families, particularly the quality of the relationships between parents and children. In addition, substance abuse leads to increased risk of violence both within the home and at the level of communities. South Africa has seen an increase in violent crimes in particular Gender Based Violence, although no direct correlation can be drawn from the increase in substance abuse and Gender Based Violence, it is recognised as a major contributing factor in violence.

Against these factors it may be useful for us as psychologists to consider the ways in which we may intervene to reduce the impact of substance abuse in the lives of South Africans. Well awareness about the dangers of substance abuse is integral, it is also vital that we take into consideration various ways in which to intervene with individuals dealing with substance abuse. While there are resources available, as with many resources in the country these are significantly under resourced. It may be important for us as psychologists to find ways in which we can assist the various organisations that attempt to intervene with substance abuse.

The World Health Organisation Highlights an Urgent Need to Transform Mental Health and Mental Health Care

The World Health Organisation Highlights an Urgent Need to Transform Mental Health and Mental Health Care

by | Jun 20, 2022 | COVID-19, Media and Public Awareness

The report urges mental health decision makers and advocates to step up commitment and action to change attitudes, actions and approaches to mental health, its determinants and mental health care.

Geneva, 17 June 2022 – The World Health Organization today released its largest review of world mental health since the turn of the century. The detailed work provides a blueprint for governments, academics, health professionals, civil society and others with an ambition to support the world in transforming mental health.

In 2019, nearly a billion people – including 14% of the world’s adolescents – were living with a mental disorder.  Suicide accounted for more than 1 in 100 deaths and 58% of suicides occurred before age 50. Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability, causing one in six years lived with disability. People with severe mental health conditions die on average 10 to 20 years earlier than the general population, mostly due to preventable physical diseases. Childhood sexual abuse and bullying victimization are major causes of depression. Social and economic inequalities, public health emergencies, war, and the climate crisis are among the global, structural threats to mental health. Depression and anxiety went up by more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic alone.

Stigma, discrimination and human rights violations against people with mental health conditions are widespread in communities and care systems everywhere; 20 countries still criminalize attempted suicide. Across countries, it is the poorest and most disadvantaged in society who are at greatest risk of mental ill-health and who are also the least likely to receive adequate services.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, just a small fraction of people in need had access to effective, affordable and quality mental health care. For example, 71% of those with psychosis worldwide do not receive mental health services. While 70% of people with psychosis are reported to be treated in high-income countries, only 12% of people with psychosis receive mental health care in low-income countries. For depression, the gaps in service coverage are wide across all countries: even in high-income countries, only one third of people with depression receive formal mental health care and minimally-adequate treatment for depression is estimated to range from 23% in high-income countries to 3% in low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Drawing on the latest evidence available, showcasing examples of good practice, and voicing people’s lived experience, WHO’s comprehensive report highlights why and where change is most needed and how it can best be achieved. It calls on all stakeholders to work together to deepen the value and commitment given to mental health, reshape the environments that influence mental health and strengthen the systems that care for people’s mental health.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “Everyone’s life touches someone with a mental health condition. Good mental health translates to good physical health and this new report makes a compelling case for change. The inextricable links between mental health and public health, human rights and socioeconomic development mean that transforming policy and practice in mental health can deliver real, substantive benefits for individuals, communities and countries everywhere. Investment into mental health is an investment into a better life and future for all.”

All 194 WHO Member States have signed up to the Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030, which commits them to global targets for transforming mental health. Pockets of progress achieved over the past decade prove that change is possible. But change is not happening fast enough, and the story of mental health remains one of need and neglect with 2 out of 3 dollars of scarce government spending on mental health allocated to stand-alone psychiatric hospitals rather than community-based mental health services where people are best served. For decades mental health has been one of the most overlooked areas of public health, receiving a tiny part of the attention and resources it needs and deserves.

Dévora Kestel, Director of WHO’s Mental Health and Substance Use Department called for change: “Every country has ample opportunity to make meaningful progress towards better mental health for its population. Whether developing stronger mental health policies and laws, covering mental health in insurance schemes, developing or strengthening community mental health services or integrating mental health into general health care, schools, and prisons, the many examples in this report show that the strategic changes can make a big difference.”

The report urges all countries to accelerate their implementation of the Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030. It makes several recommendations for action, which are grouped into three ‘paths to transformation’ that focus on shifting attitudes to mental health, addressing risks to mental health and strengthening systems of care for mental health. They are:

1. Deepen the value and commitment we give to mental health. For example:

Stepping up investments in mental health, not just by securing appropriate funds and human resources across health and other sectors to meet mental health needs, but also through committed leadership, pursuing evidence-based policies and practice, and establishing robust information and monitoring systems.

Including people with mental health conditions in all aspects of society and decision-making to overcome stigma and discrimination, reduce disparities and promote social justice.

2. Reshape environments that influence mental health, including homes, communities, schools, workplaces, health care services, natural environments. For example:

Intensifying engagement across sectors, including to understand the social and structural determinants of mental health and intervening in ways that reduce risks, build resilience and dismantle barriers that stop people with mental health conditions participating fully in society.

Implementing concrete actions to improve environments for mental health such as stepping up action against intimate partner violence and abuse and neglect of children and older people; enabling nurturing care for early childhood development, making available livelihood support for people with mental health conditions, introducing social and emotional learning programmes while countering bullying in schools, shifting attitudes and strengthen rights in mental health care,  increasing access to green spaces, and banning highly hazardous pesticides that are associated with one fifth of all suicides in the world.

3. Strengthen mental health care by changing where, how, and by whom mental health care is delivered and received.

Building community-based networks of interconnected services that move away from custodial care in psychiatric hospitals and cover a spectrum of care and support through a combination of mental health services that are integrated in general health care; community mental health services; and services beyond the health sector.

Diversifying and scaling up care options for common mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, which has a 5 to 1 benefit – cost ratio. Such scale up includes adopting a task-sharing approach that expands the evidence-based care to be offered also by general health workers and community providers. It also includes using digital technologies to support guided and unguided self-help and to deliver remote care.

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