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DRM Webinar: Conducting universal school-based mental health research in the South African context: Challenges, opportunities, and methodological considerations

DRM Webinar: Conducting universal school-based mental health research in the South African context: Challenges, opportunities, and methodological considerations

by | Jul 2, 2024 | Division for Research and Methodology (DRM), Events and Announcements, Psychology Events

Conducting universal school-based mental health research in the South African context: Challenges, opportunities, and methodological considerations

Date: 18 July 2024

Time: 12:00 to 13:00

Platform: Teams

With a focus on prevention and early intervention, universal school-based mental health interventions show promise in meeting the mental health need among children and young people (CYP) in South Africa. Yet, few culturally relevant and contextually appropriate interventions of this kind have been delivered in low- and middle-income settings. While schools are considered ideal settings for delivering intervention support, given this is where young people spend most of their time, not much is known about delivering such interventions in the South African context. Given the need, we piloted such an intervention in 2021 in partnership with a local NGO called Community Keepers, called Four Steps to My Future (4STMF). We aimed to determine outcomes related to feasibility, acceptability, and the utility of secondary outcome measures. We also conducted Ripple Effects Mapping in 2023, to explore the wider unintended outcomes of this work. Our findings showed that 4STMF can flexibility and feasibly be delivered to fit in with school context, evidenced by high session attendance and pre- post measure completion rates as well as exit focus group data. In this webinar, I will talk about the challenges, opportunities, and methodological considerations of conducting universal school-based research in a South African setting.

See the link below to join!

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Meet our Presenter!

Prof Bronwynè Coetzee is an Associate Professor of Psychology and National Research Foundation (NRF) Y1-rated researcher. She is a member of the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) and an executive member of the PsySSA’ s Division for Research and Methodology. In 2023, she received the Stellenbosch University award for research excellence and innovation as an emerging researcher. Her teaching focuses on child and adolescent development and mental health, and she conducts research in these areas. In terms of research, Prof Coetzee’s research is broadly located within the fields of health psychology and mental health. In terms of health psychology, her research focuses on factors affecting treatment adherence amongst children, adolescents and their caregivers living with HIV in South Africa. Secondly, in terms of mental health, her research also focuses on the promotion of psychological well-being amongst children, adolescents, and their caregivers in South Africa through prevention and early intervention, with a focus on universal interventions. Prof Coetzee has published more than 50 academic papers in peer reviewed and accredited journal related to her fields of research. She has graduated 18 honours students (with three ongoing), 15 master’s students (with 9 ongoing) and 3 doctoral students (with 3 ongoing).

Fighting Gender-Based Violence, 100 Days at a Time

Fighting Gender-Based Violence, 100 Days at a Time

by | Jul 1, 2024 | Trauma and Violence Division (TVD)

The End Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBVF) Movement is tasked with implementing the National Strategic Plan on GBVF, aimed at addressing the GBVF epidemic in South Africa.

What is Gender-based violence? Gender-based violence refers to violence that occurs due to role expectations related to the gender associated with the sex assigned to a person at birth, and the unequal power relations between the genders in the context of a specific society. This type of violence can include physical, economic, sexual, psychological, and economic abuse as well as rape, sexual harassment, and trafficking of women for sex, and sexual exploitation.

What is the National Strategic Plan on GBVF? The plan is divided into six focus areas (i.e., pillars for accountability, coordination, and leadership; prevention and re-building social cohesion; justice, safety, and protection; research and information management; economic power; and response, care, support, and healing), with problem analysis, strategic principles, and key deliverables guiding the work of each pillar.

Since 2021, this multi-sectoral collective has been applying a 100-Day Challenge approach to effect change in a selection of the thirty GBVF hotspots in South Africa. The approach is time-bound and makes use of intense collaboration, frequent innovation, and rapid implementation. Based on learnings from crises that were successfully resolved, 100-Day Challenges are fast, and set goals that are almost impossible to achieve. The right team is assembled and committed to the goal, and the work plan evolves as the days go by, with experimentation built into the process. The End GBVF Movement 100-Day Challenges have had significant successes.

For example, in 2023 the Mossel Bay End GBVF 100-Day Challenge team established four hotlines and helpdesks in police stations to provide reliable, safe spaces for victims of GBV. Another example was the Domestic Violence teams who improved the finalisation rate of Domestic Violence cases in participating Limpopo courts from 42% to 78%.

This year, the focus is on providing victim-friendly courts. Municipalities, courts, and TVET Colleges are working together in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, with Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the South African Local Government Agency (SALGA), Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), and the Justice sector as convenors of the 100-Day Challenges. This first cycle of End GBVF 100-Day Challenges finishes in August 2024.

To Find Out More

Read about the End GBVF Movement activities and opportunities to join the fight against GBVF in the next TVD newsletter

Fighting Gender-Based Violence, 100 Days at a Time

Addressing Trauma Associated with Natural Disasters among Mental Health Practitioners

by | Jul 1, 2024 | Trauma and Violence Division (TVD)

by Bianca Barnard

Over the last month, South Africans have grappled with the aftermath of natural disasters, from flooding in the Eastern Cape, a series of tornadoes in KwaZulu-Natal and a 2.5 magnitude earthquake in Johannesburg and the West Rand. These acts of God create a real and perceived sense of insecurity and instability in South African society, communities, and patients. Still, the impact on mental health practitioners is often forgotten.

Practitioners form part of the communities devastated by natural disasters. Unfortunately, registration as a mental health practitioner does not provide immunity to the psychological impact of the loss of safety and security and a gained sense of fear and anguish. As with a patient, there is a need to rebuild a sense of stability and safety by addressing basic needs and initiating the trauma recovery process. However, more intervention is often needed. Given the responsibility to care for others, mental health practitioners must attend to their own psychological health.

These periods of disaster create an increased demand for mental health services, longer working hours, and increased patient loads. This leaves practitioners susceptible to burnout and compassion fatigue. Psychologists also experience the secondary trauma of working with patients who have been victims of loss.

While the onus remains on mental health practitioners to prioritise their own mental health, it can be challenging. Some helpful tips on navigating these are as follows:

  • Acknowledge your humanness and put in place professional boundaries. Where possible, take leave to give yourself sufficient time and space to address the material reality and process what has happened. Do not over-commit yourself or continually place the needs of others before your need for self-care.
  • Try to limit working in a silo. Where possible and appropriate, utilise an MDT and share the load of patient management with colleagues. Connecting with peers, colleagues, and supervisors will also help mental health practitioners avoid feeling isolated, a feeling commonly experienced due to the private nature of our work.
  • Use the source of support available to you – be that a supervisor, peer group, psychologist or faith group – to ground yourself and recreate a sense of stability.

 

CEP Divisional Webinar 4

CEP Divisional Webinar 4

by | Jun 26, 2024 | Climate, Environment and Psychology (CEP), Events and Announcements, PsySSA Announcements

CEP Divisional Webinar 4

Shaping our collective futures: Radical political imagination towards climate justice. 

About this Webinar

Date: 27 June 2024

Time: 12h00-13h00

Platform: Teams

The climate crisis requires us to imagine alternative ways of living and relating grounded in climate justice principles. But what type of imagination do we need to respond to the multiple challenges associated with climate change? How does imagination shape political agency and collective action? What are the existing barriers to our imagination, and how can they be overcome? In this talk, I will address these questions by focusing on the concept of radical political imagination – which highlights the importance of recognising the role of social structures and broader systems of oppression in reproducing existing social injustices. I will make the case that radical political imagination, as a collective and political process, can be a tool for shaping our collective futures towards more just and sustainable ways. Drawing on empirical research with youth and their political imaginaries, I will also explore barriers to political imagination and how imagination might shape collective action towards collective futures. Findings suggest multiple barriers to agency and political imagination and the need to rethink how we look at power and participation in the era of the climate crisis. I will conclude by arguing that it is critical to highlight existing radical imaginings among climate justice movements.

See the link below to join!

 

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Meet Our Presenter

Maria Fernandes-Jesus (PhD, University of Porto) is a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom. She is also an associate researcher at the Center for Social Research and Intervention at Iscte-Institute University of Lisbon and an honorary research fellow at the University of Johannesburg. She currently teaches mainly qualitative research methods. Her scholarly work focuses on collective action, climate justice, youth participation, community-led initiatives, and political imagination. She is interested in researching these topics using mixed methods and following applied, participatory, and transdisciplinary approaches. She is currently the leader of the working group ‘Social Networks and Social Inclusion’, which is part of the European Rural Youth Observatory.  She is an associate editor of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology (JSPP) and the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology (JCASP). Maria has published more than 50 scientific outputs (for a full list of publications, see here or here) and was guest editor in several special issues, including: ‘Communities reclaiming power and social justice in the face of climate change’ published at the Community Psychology in Global Perspective’ (CPGP).

SANCA Drug Awareness Week 2024: 24 June – 30 June

SANCA Drug Awareness Week 2024: 24 June – 30 June

by | Jun 24, 2024 | Community and Engagement, Mental Health Advocacy, Mental Health Calendar, The South African Association for Counselling Psychology (SAACP)

Dr Elron Fouten

Dr Elron Fouten holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the Psychology Department at Rhodes University, where he is also a lecturer. For his PhD, he applied structural equation modelling (SEM) to test which individual, contextual, and social risk factors best predict substance abuse amongst a sample of substance abusers. Using SEM allowed him to demonstrate which paths and interactions amongst the risk factors are the most likely contributing factors making individuals susceptible to substance abuse. Dr Fouten’s other research interests are community psychology, the psychology of men and masculinities, gangsterism and violence, and complex traumatic stress disorder.

Risk Profiles and Multi-Level Predictors of Substance Abuse in South Africa

Substance abuse levels in South Africa have continued to rise, with the age of first experimentation with drugs reported as being 10 years. Several studies have shown that substance abuse has an adverse impact on users, their families and their communities, resulting in a number of social, psychological and economic struggles. Moreover, substance abuse places an increased psychological, social and financial burden on the individual and the family, as it has been related to the destabilisation of the nuclear and extended family units, permeating every area of life and affecting the very social fabric of society.

Since the South African government recognized the need for effective policies and strategies to mitigate substance abuse they established the Central Drug Authority to oversee the implementation of the National Drug Master Plan (NDMP). The NDMP focuses on a multi-pronged approach to mitigate substance abuse, including prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation. The plan also aligns with the global shift towards harm reduction and individualized care, as highlighted in the 2022 National Drug Control Strategy in the United States. The main targets of substance abuse awareness promotion and harm reduction strategies in South Africa are diverse, including the general population, the workforce, and specific groups such as Nyaope users.

A recent study, using the South African Substance Use Contextual Risk Instrument (SASUCRI), sought to determine the magnitude, strength and direction of the interaction of the individual and contextual risk factors (as measured by the SASUCRI) in predicting substance abuse. This study thus applied structural equation modelling (SEM) to data collected from 1094 individuals seeking either inpatient or outpatient treatment for substance abuse in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape.

This study identified 10 risk profiles (see figure below) that interact in the prediction of substance abuse; these are: individuals with low self-esteem (SE), who perceive their family as lacking or having low intra-family communication (IFC), who lack positive peer support (PPS), who perceive criminal behaviours as normal (AACB), who feel a strong need to fit in (FI), who are less religious (REL), who have easy access to drugs (PTD), who lack a sense of community traditions and belonging (CTB), who see public displays of substance use (PDSU) as normal, and who lack concern for the future(CFF), are at 59% greater risk of substance abuse. It is important to note that the micro level factors (low SE, PPS, IFC) and meso-level factors (AACB, FI, REL) do not significantly predict substance abuse, rather, they significantly interact with factors further from the individual that they predict substance abuse. Thus, it is only when they interact with factors located in the other systems (exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem) that they become significant predictors of substance abuse. Conversely, exosystem (APTD), macrosystem (CTB, PDSU), and chronosystem factors (CFF), independently are significant predictors of substance abuse.

This finding highlights the need for collaboration between community stakeholders and government in engaging community residents, particularly disadvantaged groups, to identify any of the 10 risk profiles to promote health and well-being at a community level.

Warren Cornelius

As someone with lived experience, I am deeply passionate and committed to working with people who have substance use disorders and other addictions. Professionally, I lead the ITTC SA substance use prevention, advocacy, and recovery programming. Additionally, I serve as the deputy country coordinator for the South African Chapter of the International Consortium of Universities for Drug Demand Reduction (ICUDDR). During my free time, I focus on community-based projects aimed at coordinating and facilitating substance use prevention, treatment, recovery, and other social development initiatives. I am actively involved in the organizing committee for the Recovery Walk Cape Town and am advancing the Inclusive Recovery Cities (IRC) model in South Africa. I particularly enjoy mobilizing grassroots individuals and organizations and uniting people from diverse backgrounds. I hold Postgraduate Diplomas in Addictions Care and Public Mental Health from the University of Cape Town and I am currently pursuing an Mphil in Public Mental Health.

Harmful substance use is a growing problem in South Africa. It has a profound impact on almost every aspect of our society, including the social, physical, spiritual, and mental well-being of individuals, as well as on families, communities, public health, social welfare, education, and criminal justice services. To this end, Drug Awareness Week aims to raise awareness of the harmful effects of substance use. However, many of the most common strategies being used by well-meaning advocates have been shown to be ineffective. Some have even caused harm by unintentionally reinforcing pro-use attitudes, behaviours and norms by, for example, using scare tactics. Some strategies may seem like a good idea on the surface, but our obligation is to employ evidence-based effective strategies that maximize our limited resources.

The early detection of harmful substance use is key in preventing and treating substance use disorders (SUDs). Consequently, the International Technology Transfer Center South Africa (ITTC SA), has developed the World Health Organization (WHO) The Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) into an online web app ASSIST version. The web app ASSIST is anonymized and asks about recent substance use over the past 3 months and assesses lifetime use risks. It provides (i) a level of risk for each substance used; (ii) information for the Brief Intervention (BI) component; (iii) information and feedback about the risks and harms associated with each substance; and (iv) feedback on physical, medical, and psychological risks of regular substance use, it also screens and provides information on injection drug use. Members of the public can use the self-screen pathway, and there is also a pathway for practitioners to screen clients. High-risk screening scores will lead to further assessment and a referral to specialized treatment. Usually, a small proportion (5%) of the using population will be at high risk. The rest of the individuals can be treated via a BI.

Whist mental health promotion and substance use prevention are fundamental along the continuum of care, accessibility and availability of evidence-based treatment services are vital. Members of the public are encouraged to only use treatment facilities that are registered with the Department of Social Development (DoSD). You may visit the Substance Use Treatment Directory at https://sudservices.uct.ac.za/, developed by the ITTC SA, to locate a treatment service provider nearest to you. For better treatment outcomes, substance use treatment providers should be trained in the latest evidence-based treatment approaches. The University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University’s Postgraduate Diploma in Addictions Care are the only two specialized addiction science programmes offered in the country (Kader et al., 2023). These postgrad diplomas are offered online and are accessible to addiction practitioners across the country.

While addiction has been characterised as a chronic relapsing condition, multiple studies have shown that stable recovery is not only possible but that it is probable (Sheedy and Whitter, 2009). It is widely recognised that recovery is a journey that can be measured in terms of growth of recovery capital (Granfield and Cloud, 1999) which includes three primary domains – personal, social and community capital. Recovery success relies not only on personal efforts and capabilities but also on social networks and access to the resources in the community. The recovery focus should, therefore, be aimed at community facets that are capable of hindering or promoting recovery success. Essential to this are community-based events and activities led by community members consisting of people in recovery, people who are allies of recovery, and grassroots organizations, in partnership with civic leadership and addiction treatment services.

The Recovery Walk Cape Town (RWCT) is one such event, which:

  • Challenges stigma and social exclusion by demonstrating the positive successes and achievements of recovery.
  • Creates a visible and accessible recovery community that is inclusive and welcoming and that actively engages the general public.
  • Ensures that the event is inclusive in terms of the diversity of participants including but not restricted to ethnicity, gender and gender identity.
  • Creates pathways to a diverse range of community resources and builds meaningful partnerships with these resources.
  • Champions and celebrates the contribution the recovery community makes to the communities and city in which it is located.

The RWCT is the start of a bigger objective of establishing Cape Town as an Inclusive Recovery City (IRC). However, the IRC model aims to have a network of linked cities across SA engaging in innovative grassroots practices to increase awareness of and acceptance of recovery in communities while engaging in a diverse range of public-facing activities that benefit the recovery community, other marginalised and vulnerable groups and communities and creates opportunities for active citizenship for people affected by drug and alcohol problems. The fundamental premise of the IRC model is about creating networks and hope through public celebration events that are open and accessible, first to increase connectedness for people affected by addictions and second to increase collective efficacy and civic participation across a wide range of excluded and marginalised groups. Please contact me if you are interested in learning more about the RWCT or the IRC model – it would be a joy to assist and support you in starting these in your communities and towns.

Links:

Web app ASSIST: https://assistscreening.uct.ac.za/

Substance Use Treatment Directory:  https://sudservices.uct.ac.za/

Recovery Walk Cape Town:  www.recoverywalk.co.za

References

Granfield, R., & Cloud, W. (1999). Coming clean: Overcoming addiction without treatment. NYU press.

Kader, R., Govender, R., Cornelius, W., Abrahams, L., Ashburner, F., Tisaker, N., Miovský, M., & Harker, N. (2023). Needs assessment and preparatory work for addiction science programs at universities: experiences of universities in South Africa. Journal of Substance Use, 1-6.

Sheedy, C. K., & Whitter, M. (2009). Guiding principles and elements of recovery-oriented systems of care: What do we know from the research? HHS Publication No.(SMA) 09-4439. Rockville, MD: Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

CaSP Seed Grant Competition 2024

CaSP Seed Grant Competition 2024

by | Jun 21, 2024 | Community & Social Psychology Division (CaSP), Events and Announcements

The Constitution of Community and Social Psychology (CaSP) Division states: The mission of CaSP is to promote an understanding of the fields of community and social psychology…through the advancement of scientific research, community and social collaboration and professional education…in cooperation with PsySSA, other professional organizations, and the general public.

To advance this objective, in 2018 it was decided that a seed-grant competition be started for members of CaSP.

This annual competition among CaSP members offers a seed-grant to start or advance a community-based project that promotes mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.

For more information and to apply, please see the documents below; 

Download (PDF, 1.03MB)

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