Building a Unified, Relevant, and Responsive Psychology
A woman’s success should inspire and uplift others. In this video, Prof Angelina Maphula and Fatima Peters share their inspiring journeys. Their stories of success are sure to inspire you, just as they have inspired us.
Watch the full video now on the PsySSA Student Division YouTube page!
PsySSA Student Division is excited to announce that our transformative webinar on a critical issue: “The Role of Language in Making Mental Health Care Services More Accessible in South African Communities” is now available on YouTube!
Hosted by the PsySSA Student Division, our expert panelists— SimphiweMkhize, Professor Puleng Segalo, and Professor Nhlanhla Mkhize—delved deep into the challenges and solutions around language barriers in mental health care.
Key Takeaways:
This discussion is a must-watch for anyone passionate about creating a more inclusive and accessible mental health care system in South Africa.
Watch the full webinar now on the PsySSA Student Division YouTube page!
October is the tenth month of the year. In the psychological space it is time to draw awareness to Mental Health. Two months before the so-called “silly season”. The pragmatist will argue that it is that time when there is need to prepare for the rollercoaster of emotions that characterize this unpredictable period. The cynical will contend that Mental Health is so quintessentially vital that its place should be located earlier in the year and in fact possibly throughout the year.
I am neither a pragmatist nor a sceptic. If a choice is to be made will opt to be rooted in the real world. Mental Health awareness should be a perennially enduring subject and sharply in focus perpetually. Not enough attention is afforded to promoting Mental Health. To have a holistic well-being, Mental alertness forms an integral component.
Mental Health is non-discriminatory No individual is spared, regardless of age, gender or socioeconomic status. Key WHO (2022) pointers make for interesting reading
Some major Mental Health issues WHO(2022).
The success of Mental Health programmes lies in addressing the destigmatisation of the condition. Major Mental Health issues are neither silent or invisible. It is a daily occurrence. Discrimination against those that are afflicted by a Mental condition can also be barriers to recovery.
There are two major Mental Health imponderables. Firstly inequitable access to Mental Health services. Secondly this is particularly significant when it comes to the provision of Mental Health services in rural areas. As long as this imbalance is not addressed, the possibility exists that the Mental Health scenario may be far more serious than it appears.
Psychologists are challenged to be creative in making Mental Health opportunities available to a wider audience.
Reference:
Mental health is affected by multiple factors, both biological and socio-economic in nature. Communities from disparate social and economic backgrounds are not immune to mental health challenges, and this may occur across the lifespan. With respect to brain changes resulting from disease or trauma, the ensuing mental health changes encompass multiple domains of functioning, including cognitive, emotional, behavioural and social. Far-reaching consequences that extend beyond the patient, impacting personal, interpersonal, family and work activities are often evident. In the case of brain trauma, it is now recognized the injury to brain, even minor in nature, may impact education and work activities, and personal relationships.
The sequelae may be managed with various forms of interventions such as cognitive rehabilitation but persisting difficulties are found years beyond the post-acute recovery period. Apart from trauma, the impact of brain diseases such as stroke leaves residual problems not only in the physical domain (such as weakness of a limb or loss of speech), but in thinking and emotional functioning. More recently, research has suggested that the COVID virus does enter the brain, impacting various domains of functional capacity, leaving patients who had this infection with persisting problems of thinking (commonly referred to as ‘brain fog’) and emotional difficulties (more often depression and anxiety). Neuropsychologists are called upon to determine to what extent functional capacity is affected in long-term COVID conditions. Thus, long-term care is now commonplace for victims of brain injury and disease, with patients experiencing difficulty returning to employment and resuming relationships.
In addition to the clinical implications of brain disease, the potential impact of brain related disorders is becoming more evident in legal matters. Acting impulsively and displaying aggressive or violent behaviours, showing poor judgment in managing self-behaviours in public and private contexts, and the inability to manage one’s personal affairs is common in brain injury and/or disease. In these instances, neuropsychologists possess the training and skills to formally assess patients with brain disease or injury, providing recommendations in regard to individuals’ functional capacity to return to work, ability to manage their personal affairs such as financial matters, as well as investigating whether a brain injury impacted judgment in cases of violent behaviour or instances suggesting poor judgment or insight into their behaviour. With the increasing burden of disease and injury impacting the brain structurally and its functioning, neuropsychologists are well-placed to offer the South African community expertise in identifying brain dysfunction, make diagnoses and management, and offer pertinent opinion on the impact of brain injury and/or disease on behaviour in medicolegal and forensic settings.
Join the PsySSA Division for Research and Methodology for the first of two free webinars in November!
Date: 7 November 2024
Time: 12h00 to 13h00
MS Teams Link: https://shorturl.at/Fq8Uv (no registration is needed to attend)
About the webinar: Qualitative findings are important for the purposes of contextualising and giving voice to others. However, a persistent issue is the difficulty of moving beyond the unique context often required to carry out good qualitative work. Meta-synthesis has been proposed as a plausible solution to extend the contributions of qualitative research by synthesising findings across studies. Meta-synthesis is often touted as the qualitative equivalent of meta-analysis, yet the approach can be used to go beyond describing or accumulating findings across studies. It can provide researchers with the tools to generate broader insights and understand patterns across varied contexts. Since its inception, meta-synthesis has evolved into various approaches, including meta-ethnography, meta-narrative, critical interpretive synthesis, formal grounded theory, thematic synthesis, and meta-study. This webinar will contextualise some of these approaches, focusing on interpretive rather than aggregative versions of meta-synthesis. Specifically, meta-study will be discussed for its usefulness in exploring and synthesising beyond the findings of qualitative work. Thus, meta-study could aid in understanding how psychological topics are constructed by critically examining the theories, methods, and findings of qualitative research.
Can’t join us live? Watch all recordings of the PsySSA DRM Webinars and Research Podcast episodes on the PsySSA DRM YouTube Channel
Sulaiyman Philander has been lecturing at the University of Pretoria since 2012. Currently, he lectures at undergraduate and postgraduate level. At undergraduate level, he lectures personology and critical psychology and has contributed to the prescribed text used in the introductory modules. At postgraduate level, he enjoys lecturing on the philosophical foundations of qualitative research, critical social psychology, and introducing ATLAS.ti to his students. Sulaiyman also supervises postgraduate students at honours and master’s level. Since 2023, he has served as an Executive Committee Member for the Division for Research and Methodology of PsySSA. He is currently completing his PhD at the University of Pretoria under the guidance of Professor David Maree and is exploring how emotion is constructed in psychological research. His interests include emotion, uncertainty, procrastination, and qualitative methodology, and he is also developing an interest in exploring psychology within digital spaces.
Mental health challenges leave no age, socio-economic, gender, educational or occupational group unscathed. From young children to the elderly, mental health challenges, generally referred to as stress, anxiety, or depression, have increased exponentially and it is time to act with conviction and fervour.
Although mental health has been recognised as a critical part of human life, a stark realisation of the vulnerability of individuals to stressful events became evident during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to a widespread increase in depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder, particularly due to the sudden and untimely loss of loved ones and high levels of uncertainty. As we look ahead, providing support to one another and striving to promote mental well-being for people around the world are paramount.
The recent spate of athletes who have either left their respective sporting pursuits permanently or temporarily or resorted to self-destructive behaviours, is unprecedented. The adage that ’good physical health equals good mental health’ is being challenged daily. The impact of mental health challenges on individuals and families, as well as on employers, has become pervasive in modern societies. Furthermore, the technological uptake of online interaction for work and learning has added to the burden on people’s mental health and finding new ways to manage school and work environments contributes to the mental burden. At an individual level, self-care is important especially when managing demanding work and learning environments. Economical but high reward physical and social activities can enhance work life balance and address aspects of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Like physical health, mental health requires regular ‘maintenance’ sessions to identify areas of potential emotional or relational difficulties. Without regular self-appraisal by the individual (in the case of an adult) or by a parent (for a child) or a partner in adulthood, mental health challenges may quickly escalate into crises of daily life that impact health, educability, relationships, employability, and society as a whole.
Ongoing strife between countries and ethnicities continue across the globe, filtering across media platforms and leaving a sense of doom, helplessness, and despair. There is likely to be a numbing of emotions at the continuous and increasing destruction of people, leaving a sense of despair that plays out in aberrant behaviours in daily life.
It has been long recognised that mental health difficulties are at the core of most physical illnesses, often described as the psychosomatic component of health and disease, and therefore constitute a foundational pillar of all health programmes. Against this background, a call is made for individuals and families to protect and enhance their mental health as well as that of their loved ones, particularly in the pervasively traumatic circumstances that confront societies worldwide. In light of these living conditions, access to psychological services should become part of all healthcare provisions across countries, and increased attention to training mental health professionals should be given utmost urgency.
Therefore, mental health professionals, and particularly health care professionals in South Africa, should consider availing their services, where possible, to communities where they work, to include financially disadvantaged communities in their service offerings. Group interventions and activities that facilitate affordable psychological wellness would meaningfully connect people to each other for support and further the creation of sustainable support networks.
To achieve the above, we call on the South African government to make available suitable and appropriate compensation, treatment, and recovery environments to mental health professionals. In addition, a significant effort should be made to destigmatise psychological interventions in communities by showcasing the impact appropriate interventions have on individual and family functioning and society in general. Furthermore, the South African government should consider making available funding instruments for mental health care professionals to provide psychological support services with the aim of initiating interventions that can be sustainable for the communities most vulnerable and in need in South Africa.