PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 2: Climate change and psychology: Mapping the field and foregrounding justice

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 2: Climate change and psychology: Mapping the field and foregrounding justice

About this workshop:

The world is experiencing unprecedented levels of global heating and adverse weather events, with negative public (mental) health impacts, loss of life, biodiversity loss, migration, and destruction, to name a few. In addition, climate change intersects with longstanding historical social, economic, gendered, and environmental inequalities in the global South and unequal contexts in the global North. The scholarship and practice of ‘climate psychology’ has quickly developed into a vast and complex body of work with many sub-fields. This workshop provides the co-ordinates for psychologists in climate change efforts, including identifying and addressing the direct and indirect impacts of global heating on mental health (climate-specific psychological responses to a changing planet), disaster responses, behaviour change in mitigation and adaption, education, conservation and biodiversity, organisation and community interventions, ethics, and technological and digital innovation. The second part of the workshop demonstrates how justice-related values can be central to how psychologists approach climate change efforts. The workshop provides practical examples of how theoretical, methodological, legal, environmental and human rights frameworks can encourage us to think about interconnectedness, planetary health, the inclusion of marginalised voices, accompaniment, and solidarity with existing climate justice struggles.

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 2: Climate change and psychology: Mapping the field and foregrounding justice

Meet our Presenters

Professor Brendon Barnes is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Johannesburg. He writes in psychology, climate change, environmental health, and justice. He has won teaching, academic citizenship, and research awards. Professor Barnes is known to champion the integration of justice into environmental and climate psychology, has edited several collections focusing on climate psychology and justice, and, in 2022, addressed the 15th United Nations Annual Psychology Day on the topic.

Dr Garret Barnwell is a clinical psychologist in Johannesburg, South Africa. In addition to a fulltime psychotherapeutic practice, he provides psychological expertise on a range of issues. Including, in the past, health justice issues in detention and extractive settings for Doctors Without Border, the youth-led #CancelCoal case for the Centre for Environmental Rights and the psychological impacts of opencast coal mining for All Rise Attorneys for Climate and Environmental Justice. He is also a research associate at the University of Johannesburg’s Psychology Department. 

 

HPCSA Annual Fee Notice 2023

HPCSA Annual Fee Notice 2023

This serves as a HPCSA Annual Fee Reminder. Notice is hereby given that the Annual Fees are payable by persons registered in terms of the Health Professions Act, 1974 (Act No. 56 of 1974) before 1 April each year.

Payment of 2023/24 Annual Fee in South Africa – Online Renewal and Payment Portal

Council launched an Online Renewal Portal in March 2017 to enable practitioners to renew annual fees online. We urge practitioners to use the Online Renewals Portal. Should you encounter challenges using the portal please contact the Call Centre on 012 338 9300/1.

Once you have gone through the renewal process online, including making the appropriate payment, you will be able to view and/or print an electronic “QR coded” Proof of Payment of current Annual Fee Renewal for 2023/24. This is official HPCSA proof that a Practitioner is up to date with their Annual Fee Payments.

Payments Outside South Africa

Practitioners residing outside of South Africa who encounter problems with electronic online payments may still make payments to:

Account holder:           Health Professions Council of South Africa
Bank:                            ABSA
Branch code:               334945
Account no:                 405 003 3481
Swift code:                  ABSAZAJJ
Payment Reference:   PS 0092665

Payments made from a location outside the borders of South Africa must make adequate provision for bank charges (local and overseas) as well as a possible deficit due to changes in exchange rate.

You will be able to login and view/print your current practicing card, within 48 hours after proof of payment has been submitted and received at HPCSA.

Exemptions from payment of 2023/24 Annual Fee

Should you no longer be practicing your profession due to ill health, you may be exempted from payment of the 2023/24 Annual Fee. A Medical Report, issued by a registered Medical Practitioner, must accompany such application, which should reach the Council’s offices before 1 April 2023.

Exemption from paying the Annual Fee may be granted from the year in which you turn 71, if you turn 71 before 1 April 2023, except for practitioners registered in Professional Boards for Environmental Health Practitioners, Medical Technologist, Radiography & Clinical Technology, Dietetics and Nutritionists, Dental Assisting, Dental Therapy and Oral Hygiene who may be granted exemption from the year in which you turn 66, if you turn 66 before 1 April 2023.

Voluntary Erasure

Written application for Voluntary Erasure under Section 19(1)(c) of the Act must be received by Council on or before 31 March 2023 and 2023/24 Annual Membership Fees will not be due and payable on successful finalisation of application by Council.

 Allocation of monies received from Practitioner

Monies received from Practitioners will be allocated against oldest debt first. It is important that Practitioners access the Online Renewals portal to ensure that there are no other outstanding balances due and payable. Practitioners who have used their practitioner number (please check if number is correctly recorded as HPCSA do receive payments were incorrect reference number is utilised) as reference for payment, monies will be auto allocated to practitioner account and there is no need to send HPCSA any proof of payment. Only if another reference is utilised other than a practitioner number then proof of payment can be attached in logging a service request on the Online system. This will assist the Finance department to trace and allocate a payment. Payments made via online portal will also be allocated automatically against the practitioner account.

Suspension from relevant register due to non-payment of 2023/24 Annual fees

The non-payment or partial payment of 2023/24 Annual Fees will result in a Registered Person being suspended from the Register and the need for restoration, which attracts Penalty Fees.

 Provincial government health practitioner employees

Employer and labour unions in the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council have signed Resolution 3 of 2019: Agreement on payment of annual statutory registration fees in respect of health care occupations for the Health and Social Development Departments.

All provincial government health practitioner employees must liaise with their respective provincial health departments to check if deductions were done on PERSAL for payment of their Annual Fees for 2023/24.

The PERSAL deduction process can take up to end of July 2023 to finalise and practitioners who is government employee should try and avoid paying Annual Fees for yourself until the Persal process is finalised. It should be noted that HPCSA has a manual refund process and during peak period refunds may take up to 6 months to finalise.

If an annual fee reminder is received after July 2023 indicating that a balance is still due on a practitioner account then HPCSA would urge a government employee practitioner to continue to make such payment to prevent the practitioner from been suspended due to failure to pay annual fees as in terms of the Health Professions act, practitioners will stay responsible for the payment of any outstanding annual fees to Council.

The online HPCSA system can be used to access practitioner account statement which will reflect all outstanding invoices due for payment.

Yours faithfully

Head of Department: Finance and SCM (Chief Financial Officer)
Ms M De Graaff

 

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 2: Climate change and psychology: Mapping the field and foregrounding justice

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 1: Coming out: Personal reflections and professional guidance for psychology professionals

About this workshop:

‘Coming out’ is a common turn of phrase used to metaphorically describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people’s disclosure of their sexual orientation or gendered and sexual identity. However, more than just an act of self-disclosure, coming out is a deeply personal process marking an important psychological milestone through which LGBTIQ people grapple with understanding and, hopefully, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation and identity. However, in a society which strongly enforces heteronormative and cisgendered codes of thinking, feeling, and behaving regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, most (if not all) LGBTIQ people contend with the prospect or reality of shame, rejection, and violence as they navigate coming out. It is for this reason that the psychotherapeutic spaces and services offered by psychologists, specifically, as well as mental healthcare and allied professionals, more broadly, provide a vital opportunity for LGBTIQ people to explore and affirm their gendered and sexual sense of self. This workshop aims to provide a capacity-building primer to psychology professionals about LGBTIQ peoples coming out. The workshop will: (1) contextualize the process of coming out within frameworks for understanding LGBTIQ identity development; (2) situate coming out within the South African context and consider how the cleavages of race and the specificities of culture, class, and language shape coming out; (3) examine how women/womxn’s gendered status and subjectivity informs their coming out experience; (4) reflect on trans perspectives of coming out; (5) highlight the Psychological Society of South Africa’s Practice Guidelines for Psychology Professionals Working with Sexually and Gender-Diverse People, as a resource to guide best therapeutic practice; and (6) offer practical tips to psychology professionals when supporting LGBTIQ people through their coming out. In doing so, the workshop will weave together personal reflections and professional guidance with the aim of enriching and deepening the knowledge and skills that psychology professionals bring to their therapeutic work with LGBTIQ people through their coming out. The workshop will be of interest to psychology professionals engaged in therapeutic practice as well as healthcare professionals, researchers, and allies interested in better understanding the coming out process for LGBTIQ people.

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 1: Coming out: Personal reflections and professional guidance for psychology professionals

Meet our Presenters

Jarred Martin, PhD, is an early-career researcher, senior lecturer, and registered Clinical Psychologist based in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pretoria (UP), South Africa. At UP, he teaches at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, manages the postgraduate degree programme in Clinical Psychology, and supervises postgraduate student research in critical studies of gender/s and sex/uality/ies. His research and writing concentrates on critical studies of bodies, gender/s, and sex/uality/ies, with a growing focus on sex-positive studies of erotic subjectivity, sexual practice, and queer intimacy in communities of kink. In addition to this, he sits on the Executive Committee for the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA).

Nkanyiso Madlala is a registered Clinical psychologist at the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). Nkanyiso is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of South Africa focusing on the area of sexuality and gender diversity specifically in the carceral population. Nkanyiso is a committee member of the LGBTQI+ Africa Human Rights project, an executive member of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA), and a member of the Professional Association for Transgender Health South Africa (PATHSA). He was involved in the development of the gender affirming health care guidelines by the South African HIV Clinicians society. A committee member for the core committee currently reviewing and revising the Psychology procedures manual for psychological services in the DCS. In addition, he has worked at spearheading training workshops for DCS professionals (Gauteng region) and correctional staff. The workshops are geared towards sensitizing correctional staff of the LGBTQ+ community in correctional facilities and their needs, and equipping DCS staff with basic tools and skills needed to work with the LGBTQ+ community.

Vickashnee Nair is a registered Counselling Psychologist in private practice based in Bryanston. While working at a children’s home, providing therapeutic services, she is also employed as a consultant psychologist at a medico-legal and evaluation company working in assessments. She was an Executive Member of the Southern African Sexual Health Association (SASHA). Her education includes a Masters in Community Based Counselling Psychology through the University of Witwatersrand. Her passions include LGBTQ+ issues, social justice, advocacy, and community psychology.

Chris McLachlan is the Chairperson of the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) and the Professional Association of Transgender Health, South Africa (PATHSA). Chris also serves as a World Professional Association in Transgender Health’s board member, represents South Africa on the International Psychology Network and an advisory board member of Wits Reproductive Health Institute trans clinics. Chris has been involved in the sexually and gender diverse field since 1992 and was one of the first registered marriage officers in South Africa under the Civil Union Act. Chris is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of South Africa and a registered Clinical Psychologist working at a Thuthuzela Care Centre (rape crises centre) in KwaZulu-Natal. He also runs a small private practice focusing primarily on members of the LGBTQI+ community. Chris is also a trainer/lecturer in the field of sexuality and gender diversity and has published various articles. They had the privilege to be part of the core group that developed PsySSA’s guidelines on sexual and gender diversity. Chris identifies as genderqueer, trans masculine and lives in a beautiful village with his children in the Midlands, KwaZulu-Natal.

Juan Nel, DLitt et Phil, is a registered Clinical and Research Psychologist, Research Professor of Psychology at the University of South Africa (UNISA) and an NRF-rated researcher with recognised expertise in LGBT+ mental health and well-being, hate crimes and victim empowerment and support, more generally. Juan is a former President of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA) (2014-2015), former member of its Council, and founder and Deputy Chair of the PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division. He, furthermore, represents PsySSA on (inter)national structures in fields related to his research towards furthering PsySSA’s profile as a Learned Society. In this regard, most noteworthy are his roles as i) leader of the research sub-committee of the South African Hate Crimes Working Group; ii) co-representative on the International Psychology Network for LGBTI Issues (IPsyNet); and iii) leader of the PsySSA African LGBT+ Human Rights project aimed promoting well-being and human rights for LGBT+ persons in Africa, and from which the PsySSA Practice Guidelines for Psychology Professionals Working with Sexually and Gender-Diverse People emanate. He is passionate about equality and human rights, and strengthening healthcare provision through evidence-informed and sustainable community-based services, and the development of a body of knowledge towards policy reform.

Pierre Brouard is currently the Acting Director of the Centre for Sexualities, AIDS and Gender (CSA&G) at the University of Pretoria (UP) and a registered Clinical Psychologist, with a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, obtained in 1993 from the University of the Witwatersrand. He has worked in HIV since the mid 1980’s (initially as a volunteer) and at the Centre since 2001. His interests and work include sexualities, gender, human rights, stigma, governance, leadership, accountability, transformation, diversity and social justice. At UP he sat on a committee which drafted an Anti-Discrimination Policy, and contributed to and taught on a number of short courses and modules, mostly on sexualities, gender and HIV, including short courses on Gender Equality and Sexual Minority Rights. He was instrumental in developing a workshop on sexual harassment which has been rolled out over the last 5 years at the university and helped to develop a protocol for the university to meet the needs of trans and gender diverse students and staff. In addition to this, he is an Executive Committee Member for the Sexuality and Gender Division of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA).

 

Vacancies within the Western Cape Education Department

Vacancies within the Western Cape Education Department

We are excited to invite interested practitioners to apply for psychology vacancies in the Western Cape Education Department.

Please view the adverts on the https://e-recruitment.westerncape.gov.za/ webpage and search in the ‘public servants or office-based educators’ sections.

Links to the current vacancies have been provided below. These positions are OSD positions and offer market-related remuneration.

Cape Winelands (Worcester): https://e-recruitment.westerncape.gov.za/index.php/AaVacancies/post/4854/window

Metro Central (3 vacancies): https://e-recruitment.westerncape.gov.za/index.php/AaVacancies/post/4855/window

Metro South: https://e-recruitment.westerncape.gov.za/index.php/AaVacancies/post/5095/window

Eden/Central Karoo (Mossel Bay): https://e-recruitment.westerncape.gov.za/index.php/AaVacancies/post/4822/window