PsySSA’s Psychology Practitioners – COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
Dear PsySSA Member
We trust that this email finds you in good health.
As you may be aware, South Africa’s vaccine rollout to healthcare workers has seen more than 70 000 vaccines already administered to date. This programme is expected to gain momentum in the coming weeks with the addition of more vaccination sites across the country.
As a learned professional society, PsySSA is committed to advocating for vaccine access and equity for all South Africans. We however note the importance of healthcare workers as a priority cohort in general, and to this end, we are currently collating data from our members to assist in supporting a co-ordinated national strategy that facilitates practitioner access to the vaccine in the various phases of the rollout.
We are therefore collating information to help assess practitioners’ COVID-19 risk and eligibility for vaccination in the current phase of the vaccine rollout programme.
The information that is to be collected will be used to assist in determining vaccine access priority and hopefully contribute to a more organised referral of practitioners to designated vaccination sites when this becomes possible.
We therefore ask all members to complete the attached questionnaire to ensure comprehensive data..
We will keep you informed of further developments in the vaccine rollout process as it concerns our members, as well as of the outcomes of our discussions with the Department of Health.
For any further assistance kindly email info@psyssa.com
In solidarity,
The PsySSA Presidency
PsySSA: Tribute to Professor Lionel John Nicholas
PsySSA invites you to honour the legacy of its Fourth President and one of its founding members, Prof Lionel John Nicholas, who passed away on the on 24 December 2020 in Cape Town
Prof Nicholas will be honoured by:
- Mr Umesh Bawa (University of the Western Cape)
- Prof Hussein Bulhan (Frantz Fanon University, Somaliland)
- Prof Saths Cooper (IUPsyS & PAPU)
- Dr Kedibone Letlaka-Rennert (IMF, Washington)
- Dr Jim Statman (Boston)
- Prof Kopano Ratele (University of South Africa)
- Prof Garth Stevens (Dean: Humanities, University of the Witwatersand)
- Prof Shahnaaz Suffla (University of South Africa)
Join us on Thursday, 14 January 2021 at 18:00 (SAST)
PsySSA Lights its Candle Blue
PsySSA hears the call from our National President and lights our candle blue in honour of those who have lost their lives and in tribute to those working on the frontline.
PsySSA invites you to join our campaign by uploading a picture of your candle to social media and tagging us.
We are optimistic that the year ahead will bring health, peace and hope to all our nation.
#NewYearsEve2020 #Candle #LostLives #FrontLineWorkers
Facebook: @PsySSA
Instagram: @psyssa6807
Twitter: @PsySSA_
PSYSSA TRIBUTE: Lionel John Nicholas, PhD
PsySSA Founding Member, Lionel Nicholas, PhD, passed away on 24 December 2020 in Cape Town.
The fourth PsySSA President (1999-2001), Lionel Nicholas was key to bringing together the white-led Psychological Association of South Africa (PASA), the Psychologists Against Apartheid group, and other psychologists who sought to unify psychology and rid it of its shameful past. He was instrumental in organising the Inaugural PsySSA Congress that was held at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in the third week of January 1994, some three months before the historic general elections of 24-27 April, which put South Africa (SA) on a democratic and human rights trajectory. PsySSA was thus the first anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-sectarian professional association that was formed in SA. This, without in any way attempting to deny the past, which he constantly warned had a way of rearing itself in the present to disturb the unleashing of its beneficent possibilities amongst humanity in SA and globally.
Lionel Nicholas and his colleagues succeeded against tremendous historic tradition, socialised inferiority, and the prevailing ethos in bringing together all psychologists under one banner. He was determined to sever psychology’s umbilical cord with its erstwhile repression and abiding limitations that precluded the training of more demographically appropriate psychologists, opening up psychology to SA, and making SA receptive to the enormous benefits of psychological knowledge, policy imperatives and endless intervention possibilities.
The history of psychology in South Africa for well over the past three decades is indelibly etched by Lionel Nicholas’ dogged chiselling of the rock face of psychology that was profoundly limited, limiting and exclusionary. Psychology’s current denouement – still reflective of its origins – owes a debt of gratitude to the fearless championing of Dr Nicholas, despite the great cost to his personal advancement. Whilst a prolific scholar who wrote widely in the behavioural field, social work – where he began his professional journey – and sexology, where he obtained another doctorate, many in or aspiring to leadership of the academy (which was deeply segregated) and the regulatory Professional Board for Psychology were threatened by his outspokenness, enabling of nascent and fresh voices, and pushing the confines of historic and self-imposed boundaries.
One could not be indifferent to Lionel Nicholas, whose large and gregarious personality one either understood, tolerated – what you saw of him and what you heard from him were the sum of the man – or were offended by. Nevertheless, most who knew and interacted with him – notably in psychology in SA and abroad – have memorable encounters that will continue to be regaled at psychology events. He will be the first to heartily laugh and see the irony in his dying on Christmas eve. Psychology has lost a champion, but his inimitable contributions to clearing the way for more of us to get a liberating education and training experience and enter a restricted profession will remain etched in our collective history.
PsySSA extends its heartfelt sympathies to the Nicholas family.
16 days of activism – relevance for trans and gender diverse people
As South Africans we often say we have a remarkable constitution and bill of rights; it is the realisation of those rights at the coalface that remains a challenge. Now in 2020, we can add to that: we have a new National Strategic Plan on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide 2020-2030(1); the challenge will be the implementation of this ambitious plan. This document defines “woman” in the glossary of terms, as “a person that defines themselves as female and includes not only cis women, but also trans women and femme/feminine-identifying genderqueer and non-binary persons”. The vision is a South Africa free from all forms of gender-based violence (GBV) directed at all women, children and LGBTQIA+ persons. One of the ten principles that will guide the implementation is “Inclusiveness, embracing diversity and intersectionality, recognising the importance of being rooted in women’s experiences who are most marginalised by poverty, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, sexual identity, gender identity and nationality.”
From a recent research report by Muller et al.(2), we know that trans persons in South Africa experience alarming high levels of violence, with 33% of trans women and 23% of trans men reporting physical violence in the past year, and 35% of trans women and 28% of trans men reporting sexual violence in the past year. The lifetime exposure to sexual violence is devasting: 67% of trans women and 50% of trans men(2). Part of the complexity for trans men is that many carry the painful memories of sexual violence before transition. Trans and gender diverse persons, who present visibly as non-conforming, experience more violence compared to their gender-conforming counterparts(3). There is often little tolerance in our society for people who do not fit neatly into the western construct of a gender binary, such as masculine expressing and presenting lesbian women and trans men. Many trans and gender diverse persons who experience violence are reluctant to access health care for fear of discrimination. Sadly, discriminatory and insensitive treatment by health care providers have been well documented(4). Trans and gender diverse children are at increased risk of bullying, because they do not conform to society’s expectations(5).
Intersectionality theory says that various oppressions create and mutually constitute one another to sustain a complex matrix of power that is rooted in, and actively maintained by, social structures and institutional systems(6). GBV happens in a context where trans and gender diverse people may experience intersecting oppressions due to their gender identity, race, poverty, HIV status, and other factors(7).
As PATHSA, we share the vision of the national strategic plan, where president Ramaphosa wrote in the introduction, “The South Africa we want is a country where all its citizens are able to lead their lives of dignity and freedom, and where the vulnerable and marginalised are protected by our Constitution and Bill of Rights.” Though there are no quick solutions, we are encouraged that there is a national strategic plan on GBV that specifically includes violence directed at people based on their gender identity or gender expression. We would like to work with others towards the realisation of this vision.
References
- South African Government. National Strategic Plan on Gender-based Violence & Femicide: Human dignity and healing, safety, freedom & equality in our lifetime [Internet]. Pretoria: South African Government; 2020. p. 1–128. Available from: https://justice.gov.za/vg/gbv/NSP-GBVF-FINAL-DOC-04-05.pdf
- Müller A, Daskilewicz K, Southern and East African Research Collective on Health. Are we doing alright? Realities of violence, mental health, and access to healthcare related to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in South Africa: Research report based on a community-led study in nine countries. Amsterdam; 2019.
- Miller LR, Grollman EA. The Social Costs of Gender Nonconformity for Transgender Adults: Implications for Discrimination and Health. Sociol Forum. 2015;30(3):809–31.
- Luvuno ZP, Ncama B, Mchunu G. Transgender population’s experiences with regard to accessing reproductive health care in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa: A qualitative study. Afr J Prm Heal Care Fam Med [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2019 Nov 27];11(1):a1933. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/phcfm.v8i1.1054
- Strauss, Penelope, Cook A, Winter S, Watson V, Wright Toussaint D LA. Trans Pathways: the mental health experiences and care pathways of trans young people – Summary of results. [Internet]. Perth; 2017. Available from: https://www.telethonkids.org.au/transpathways
- Wesp LM, Malcoe LH, Elliott A, Poteat T. Intersectionality Research for Transgender Health Justice: A Theory-Driven Conceptual Framework for Structural Analysis of Transgender Health Inequities. Transgender Heal. 2019;4(1):287–96.
- Logie CH, James Ll, Tharao W, Loutfy MR. HIV, gender, race, sexual orientation, and sex work: A qualitative study of intersectional stigma experienced by HIV-positive women in Ontario, Canada. PLoS Med. 2011;8(11).
Endorsed by Psychological Society of South Africa, Sexuality and Gender Division.
