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Grade Seven Pupil Commits Suicide after Allegedly being Bullied on WhatsApp

by | Feb 19, 2019 | Uncategorized

A 13-year-old pupil  committed suicide after she was allegedly bullied by friends on WhatsApp groups since last week. 

According to the Sinoville Crisis Centre, the teen sent her friend an image of herself, which was distributed among pupils on various WhatsApp groups. The pupils mocked and shamed her. It is believed that the learner was criticised about her physical appearance and that she felt humiliated and feared going to school.

“Preliminary investigation on the incident suggests that the  learner was allegedly bullied by a fellow Grade 7 learner, who threatened to distribute video material depicting the deceased learner naked. The deceased learner reported the bullying to her Life Science educator after school on Thursday, 14 February 2019, however, the accused learner had already left school,  The parents of the Grade 7 pupil found her body in her bedroom on Monday.”

Just a week after Teen Suicide Prevention Week, this heart-breaking incident is a wake-up call to all South Africans. Cyberbullying reminds us that as much as technology has improved our lives, it’s also introduced new problems. According to a global survey by YouGov in 2015, South Africa has the fourth highest rate of cyberbullying in the world and the effects can be devastating.

“Parents or guardians can be proactive in ensuring both that their children are protected online, and that they know what to do should they encounter cyberbullies.

Four ways to do this:

1. Talk about it

Talking about it openly will assure your children that you know what cyberbullying is, and will likely encourage them to be open about it to you, should they experience it. Parents also have the ability through conversation to teach their kids what’s funny and what’s cruel online, so their children don’t become bullies in turn. “We find that children don’t always think about the consequences of their actions; they get caught up in the moment, create a post and the next thing they know it’s become viral,” said Heather Hansen from Teenworx.

2. Get involved

Know which social networks your kids use, and if necessary, follow them on social media and conduct occasional spot checks. If you’re not particularly tech-savvy, learn the basics of how that social media platform works.

3. Set limits

Be wary of giving your kids limitless access to internet-accessible devices or leaving them unsupervised for long periods of time. When you do give them a smartphone, talk about your expectations for their behaviour and actions. You have the right as a parent to give them technological devices on condition that you’re able to access the devices at any time, especially when they are younger.

4. Spot the signs

According to the Cyberbullying Research Centre, there are signs you can look out for to determine that your child may be a target of cyberbullying. If he or she unexpectedly stops using their device, appears nervous or jumpy when using their phone, appears uneasy about going to school or outside in general, appears to be angry, depressed, or frustrated after going online, becomes abnormally withdrawn from usual friends and family member, loses interest in the things that mattered most to them, avoids discussions about what they are doing online, frequently calls or texts from school requesting to go home ill, desires to spend much more time with parents rather than peers and becomes unusually secretive, especially when it comes to online activities, they may be being cyberbullied.

Places that can help:

  • Childline’s counsellors are available on 08000 55 555, toll-free.
  • The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag)’s 24-hour helpline is 0800 12 13 14.
  • The South African Police Service (SAPS) — depending on the seriousness of the incident, report it at your nearest police station.”

Sources: News24 ; Huffpost SA

SADAG Teen Suicide Brochure

Download (PDF, 2.64MB)

“I cannot go on living, don’t be angry with me”: Preventing suicide in children and adolescents  

by | Feb 17, 2019 | Uncategorized

Teenage years can be tough and sometimes drains one’s energy, hope, and drive, making it difficult for them to feel positive in life. It is at this time that teens with low resiliency attributes entertain the thoughts of suicide. As we observe the Teen Suicide Prevention Week, we are reminded of the recent times we have experienced a spread in teenagers committing suicide at schools and Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s). This scourge has left not only families and those close to the deceased in deep pain, but it has also led to many others feeling lost, anxious and even depressed. The tragedy of teen suicide is further complicated by the social stigma attached to it by the society. The most poignant issue about teen suicide is that parents struggle to come to terms with the “why?” and try to find a rational answer to why their child chose to commit suicide.  Unfortunately, most of them never receive an answer that would make it possible for them to deal with the bereavement and to eventually come terms with the ordeal and move on with their own lives.

There are various reason leading to teen suicide, amongst them being mental health issues or psychopathology, social competence and identity, negative self-concept and self-esteem, unhealthy competition, poor academic achievement, and inappropriate age developmental, to mention but a few. Despite them being exposed to numerous psycho-social support systems, many teens who commit suicide are so engrossed in their internal pain that they miss seeing the support and love surrounding them. It is unfortunate that suicide does not have fixed attributes but is more as a dynamic process that evolves over time and current context. Rather than being elusive of the existence of this travesty in our teens lives, stakeholders in the helping must explore healthy developmental initiatives that are relevant to the South African realities and can be enhanced throughout multiple systems approach.

If we are to prevent teen suicide, there is urgent need for proactive and preventative approaches that can reduce the tragedy. We need to educate communities to identify simple signs and symptoms amongst teenagers that have the potential to lead to suicide such as (but not limited to) anxiety, apprehension, tension, or uneasiness and any perceived threat or anticipation of danger. If our teens believe something important to them is being threatened and they overestimate the threat, underestimate their ability to cope with it, or underestimate the inner and outer resources they have available to cope with it, then they are prone to suicidal thoughts.

There are various ways to challenge suicidal thoughts and action, but these four will give many teenagers a preventative kick-start to teen suicide:

Think outside yourself.

Allow yourself to be less than perfect.

Socialize with positive people.

Keep a “positive thought log.”

When dealing with teens, we need not only listen with our ears, but also need to listen with our eyes, heads and hearts. This small act of support can go a long way to save a teenager’s life.

Register for this free webinar | Friday, February 22, 2019, 8:30am – 9:30am EST

by | Feb 17, 2019 | Uncategorized

Register for this free webinar  |  Friday, February 22, 2019, 8:30am – 9:30am EST

Toward a Decolonial Psychology: Three Scholars in North American Settings
A symposium in the Conference
Toward a Decolonial Psychology: Theories from the Global South
Cape Town, South Africa; 21-22 February, 2019

Decolonising Psychological Imperialism: Social Inequality and the Search for Dignity in the Global South

Sunil Bhatia, Connecticut College, USA

In this talk, I will clarify the concept of decolonization and explain why we need to “decolonize” the discipline of psychology. I will offer a vision of an alternative psychology that give us a possible counter-narrative to the imperialism of Euro-American psychological science. My call for a renewed “decolonized” psychology invites us to be accountable and answerable to those people whose lives it has minimized, exploited and overlooked. It is a call for creating a critical transnational psychology that focuses on cultural humility and a self-reflexive awareness about its own moral vision, power and privilege.
Decolonizing Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Community Psychology: Tales of Tension toward Transformation for Liberation
Jesica S. Fernandez, Santa Clara University, USA
Community psychology is deeply committed to the liberation and thriving of disenfranchised communities. How community psychology engages in decoloniality and anti-coloniality in theory, research, and practice is imperative. In keeping with a decolonial process, one paradigm that allows for the disruption of hegemony and epistemic violence is Participatory Action Research (PAR). PAR facilitates opportunities for critical consciousness, collective determination, and transformational social change as determined by communities (Ayala, et al., 2018; Torre, 2009).
The (Post)Colonial Predicament for American Indian Mental Health Services: Reflections on Some Early Career Lessons
Joseph P. Gone, Harvard University, USA
In an early part of my career, I explored depression and problem drinking among my own people on the Fort Belknap Indian reservation in Montana, USA. There I met a middle-aged cultural traditionalist named Traveling Thunder who explained to me why many community members struggled with substance abuse and associated distress. In his view, the primary problem was that, “We never was happy living like a Whiteman.” This discussion will will discuss how this problem frame overtly recasts “mental disorders” as (post)colonial pathologies, which has substantively shaped my scholarly interests and inquiry ever since.
Register here:  https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/859877863368622348

World Epilepsy Day, 11 February 2019

by | Feb 12, 2019 | Uncategorized

Background

International Epilepsy day is celebrated annually, every second Monday in February. People from all over the world come together to celebrate and highlight the problems people face living with Epilepsy.

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects 1 in 100 South Africans it is classified as a Neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain. The electrical activity is measured by an electroencephalogram conducted by a neurologist.

Epilepsy can be managed through different types of treatments; ranging from different medications to approved therapeutic devices and even surgery. Research into Epilepsy has shown that episodes of individuals can be related to their regulation of emotions. For example, if an individual is too excited or in a depressive state, it can be a trigger for a person, hence the need for counselling for people living with epilepsy.

What to do when a person is having an epileptic attack?

  1. Stay calm.
  2. Look around – is the person in a dangerous place?  If not, don’t move them. Move objects like furniture away from them.
  3. Note the time the seizure starts.
  4. Stay with them. If they don’t collapse but seem blank or confused, gently guide them away from any danger. Speak quietly and calmly.
  5. Cushion their head with something soft if they have collapsed to the ground.
  6. Don’t hold them down.
  7. Don’t put anything in their mouth.
  8. Check the time again. If a convulsive (shaking) seizure doesn’t stop after 5 minutes, call for an ambulance 10177 or from a cell phone 112.
  9. After the seizure has stopped, put them into the recovery position and check that their breathing is returning to normal.  Gently check their mouth to see that nothing is blocking their airway such as food or false teeth. If their breathing sounds difficult after the seizure has stopped, call for an ambulance.
  10. Stay with them until they are fully recovered.
  11. If they are injured, or they have another seizure without recovering fully from the first seizure, call for an ambulance.

How to get involved

Small acts of kindness can go a long way, wearing a purple ribbon or wearing purple on the day and raising awareness on social media can make a big difference.

Share this post and don’t forget to hashtag #epilepsyawarenessday2019  #EASA

Volunteers are always needed please contact epilepsyawarenesssa@gmail.com

Click here to learn more