PsySSA Announcements

PsySSA Commemorates World Trauma Day 2022

by PsySSA-Web Support | Oct 17, 2022 | COVID-19, Events and Announcements, Mental Health Advocacy, PsySSA Announcements

“Trauma constantly confronts us with fragility and with man’s inhumanity to man, but also with our extraordinary resilience” (van der Kolk, 2014).

World Trauma Day, observed on 17 October, emphasises the need to prevent deaths and disabilities caused by accidents or trauma. It was initiated in New Delhi in 2011 to highlight the number of deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents (Sahu, 2022). The purpose of World Trauma Day lies in generating awareness on various precautionary measures and averting deaths and disabilities caused by traumatic incidents. As per a study conducted by the World Health Organization (2021), nearly half of the trauma-related deaths occurring in developing countries could have been prevented with psychoeducation programmes and effective intervention, such as:

immediate pre-hospital care
adequate knowledge of handling emergency situations (training of personnel)
adequate supply of pre-hospital care equipment and facilities (enough ambulances and other medical supplies)

On commemoration of this day, we acknowledge that trauma is a major cause of preventable death and disability across the world. And whilst in the medical world, trauma is considered an event causing physical injury, we also see it pertinent to acknowledge that trauma extends beyond the notion of physical trauma to also include psychological and emotional trauma exposure.

Certainly, South Africa is one of the few countries globally that has endured protracted political violence as well as high rates of criminal violence, domestic abuse, and accidental injury. This translates into South Africans being widely and commonly confronted with primary and secondary accounts of traumatic stressors, both in their everyday lives and in the mass media. For many South Africans, the stress of living in conditions of continuous traumatisation is compounded by the chronic anxiety wrought by severe economic deprivation. The civil unrest in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the flooding in KwaZulu Natal (amongst other events) in the past year further illuminated this social inequality.

Whilst we are a traumatised nation, we are also a resilient one, with ubuntu standing as one of our nation’s strongest symbols.

My humanity is preserved though you, and yours through us.

In this sense, amidst precarious times, we encourage mutual support among community members, relatives, friends, colleagues and even strangers, Support will go a long way to bring comfort and relief to distressed individuals. Knowing that someone cares and is willing to listen to one’s experiences is a crucial feat in healing. We also call upon government to embark on meaningful efforts to address the levels of traumatisation in our country, to prioritise the safety of women and children, and to increase safety in public places – understanding social inequality and poverty as key drivers (amongst others). Further, we call on communities to normalise conversations about trauma and its effects.

As we commemorate World Trauma Day, we appeal to individuals to seek assistance if they are experiencing trauma-related symptoms for which they cannot cope. including repetitive and distressing nightmares, flashbacks and/or memories and avoidance of trauma-related thoughts. In addition, one may experience depressive symptoms including negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself or the world, guilt and blame; decreased interest in activities; feeling isolated and difficulty experiencing positive moods. Further, changes in arousal or reactivity including irritability or aggression; risky or destructive behaviour; hypervigilance; heightened startle reaction; difficulty concentrating and difficulty sleeping, may ensue.

Although it is normal to experience symptoms post trauma, if symptoms persist, or if traumatic exposure is ongoing and severely impacting your capacity to function in various domains, you may benefit from seeking professional support.

Symptoms could include repetitive and distressing nightmares, flashbacks and/or memories; avoidance of trauma-related thoughts, feelings and/or external reminders, depressive symptoms (negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself or the world; blame of self or others for causing the trauma; decreased interest in activities; feeling isolated; difficulty experiencing positive affect) as well as alterations in arousal or reactivity (irritability or aggression; risky or destructive behaviour; hypervigilance; heightened startle reaction; difficulty concentrating; difficulty sleeping). Although it is normal to experience symptoms post trauma, if symptoms persist, or if traumatic exposure is ongoing and severely impacting your capacity to function in various domains, you may benefit from seeking professional support.

Mental Health Emergency Contacts:

The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG): 011 234 4837
Suicide Crisis Lifeline: 080 0567 567
Trauma Helpline: 080 020 5026

References

Sahu, V. (2022). World Trauma Day 2022: History, significance and theme. Retrieved 11 October 2022 from https://www.merazone.com/2022/10/world-trauma-day-2022-history.html

van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Viking.

World Health Organisation. (2021). Injuries and violence. Retrieved 11 October 2022 from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/injuries-and-violence

PsySSA Commemorates World Mental Health Day 2022

by PsySSA-Web Support | Oct 10, 2022 | Community Engagement, COVID-19, Events and Announcements, Mental Health Advocacy, PsySSA Announcements

Suntosh R. Pillay

The growth of the KwaZulu-Natal Mental Health Advocacy Walk is best captured by the infamous African saying, “If you want to go fast, go alone; but you if want to go far, go together”.

Now in our seventh year, when we began this event in 2016 we had modest expectations for a cause that isn’t perceived as ‘sexy’ or ‘newsworthy enough’ for the media. However, in three short years, the mainstream media did start paying increasing attention to us, and in 2019 we were on the evening news on SABC TV. Despite a two-year Covid-induced hiatus (where we experimented with virtual walks but had lukewarm results) we returned in full force on Sunday, for our first post-pandemic, in-person walk. Over 700 people registered!

The event is hosted by the KZN Mental Health Advocacy Group, an informal civil society network that my colleague Professor Suvira Ramlall and I started a few years ago. We also use the platform to host the annual Durban Mental Health Symposium, and since 2018 we evolved into the first satellite branch of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) outside of Johannesburg.

The walk is our flagship affair – but it’s more than a mere walk. It builds social capital in the province, makes it easier for people to ask for help when they are in distress or suicidal, and promotes healthy living, through Zumba, yoga, aerobics, dance, and meditation lessons. Ultimately, this walk is about allyship, solidarity and visibility – the beating heart of all activism.

As my friend and co-conspirator Prof Ramlall said at the walk: “What’s really inspiring is that we’re creating momentum, advocacy and activism from the bottom up, so that this event is community-driven. As a psychiatrist with thirty years of experience in public health, she knows mental health activism from every vantage point. I agree – lasting change, that goes further, rather than simply faster, must come from community collaborations. For this reason, we have no major corporate sponsor taking the lead in organizing this event. Quite frankly, we start our planning every year with zero budget. But somehow, always, people reach out, offer to buy, to sponsor, to donate, to volunteer, to carry, to drive, to do something. It is this spirit of togetherness, of collective ownership, that has kept this event strong, consistent, energetic, and fun. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it.

Blanche Moila, my former colleague, a retired nurse, is an 18-time Comrades runner. She joined the walk because despite her long career in psychiatry she said she still sees stigma against mental illness even though “it can effect anyone, whether you’re a professional, a labourer, whether you’re rich or you’re poor.”

I spotted Dr Sandile Kubheka at the walk, once the youngest doctor to qualify from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He said the walk was a reminder that “taking care of ourselves is crucially important… we have to always make sure our mental health is in a good place.” As healthcare workers emerging from devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic, we must heed the good doctor’s prescription! Evidence shows that a simple walk has tangible psychological and emotional benefits.

Finally, as we commemorate October 10, World Mental Health Day, there will be many ‘big’ important-sounding conversations, such as Lancet commission launches, lofty sounding webinars, and rhetoric-infused editorials. #WMHD2022 often pivots the ‘global’ – but let’s do more to focus on the local. We must step up and be able to change our local conditions, first and foremost.

Suntosh R. Pillay is a clinical psychologist in Durban.

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PsySSA Commemorates World Patient Safety Day 2022

by PsySSA-Web Support | Sep 17, 2022 | Events and Announcements, Mental Health Advocacy, PsySSA Announcements

World Patient Safety Day 2022: Medication Safety: Medication Without Harm

The theme for this year’s World Health Organization World Patient Safety Day, to be commemorated on 17 September 2022, is Medication Safety: Medication Without Harm.

World Patient Safety Day calls for the prioritization of best practices to promote patient safety and to avoid errors that result in patients experiencing harm in healthcare settings. It has been reported that annually, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), as many as 134 million adverse events, following unsafe patient practices, occur in hospital settings, resulting in 2.6 million deaths (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine, 2018).

Dangerous medication practices result in avoidable harm in health care settings across the globe. Medication errors can result from a range of factors, amongst others, human error and resource shortages. When medications are not prescribed, dispensed, administered or monitored correctly, patient harm can result. Moreover, when not correctly stored, medications can become less effective, toxic or even a means to suicidal behaviour.

These adverse events can result in substantial psychological distress, physical harm and economic burden. The Medication Safety: Medication Without Harm campaign raises awareness of high-risk situations where medication-related harm can occur – such as polypharmacy and in transitions in patient care. It encourages individuals taking medication to check that they are taking the correct medication in the correct manner, and to ask their health care professional if they have any medication related questions. Health care workers are encouraged to talk to patients about the medication they prescribe or dispense, and to encourage patients to ask questions should these arise.

The Psychological Society of South Africa joins healthcare workers and civil society across the globe in commemorating World Patient Safety Day 2022: Medication Without Harm. PsySSA encourages service users and healthcare practitioners to play an active and deliberate role in preventing medication-related harm.

Link: https://www.who.int/multi-media/details/medication-without-harm—world-patient-safety-day-2022#

PsySSA Commemorates World Suicide Prevention Day 2022 – Hope Campaign 2022

by PsySSA-Web Support | Sep 10, 2022 | Community Engagement, Events and Announcements, Mental Health Advocacy, Psychology Events, PsySSA Announcements

HOPE CAMPAIGN 2022:

The 10th of September 2022 has been declared World Suicide Prevention Day, by the International Association for Suicide Prevention in conjunction with the World Health Organization. On this day, attention is focused on reducing stigma and raising awareness of suicide prevention among organisations and within the public sphere to inspire creating hope through action.

PsySSA is joining in this international initiative through releasing our Hope Campaign. The Hope Campaign comprises of a series of videos which will be released throughout the day on our social media channels. We encourage our community of PsySSA members to help spread these releases through sharing them on your own social media pages.

A special thank you to all the contributors of the project:

Nicky Newman Photography (https://www.nickynewmanphotography.com), Alice den Hollander Photography (insta:alice_den_hollander), Nonhlanhla Maubane, Gavaza Shingange, and the SASCP and the PiPS divisions

PsySSA will being posting media throughout the day.

Watch our social media to see this campaign, lead by Executive Member, Daniel den Hollander, develop!

#Hope #WorldSuicidePreventionDay #CreatingHope #ThroughAction

You’re Invited: SPSSI’s New Webinar Series on “Decolonial Approaches to the Psychological Study of Social Issues

by PsySSA-Web Support | Sep 5, 2022 | Collaborations, Events and Announcements, Mental Health Advocacy, Psychology Events, PsySSA Announcements

This webinar series (“Decolonial Approaches to the Psychological Study of Social Issues”) features 15 presentations (organized into 5 installments) based on contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues (JSI) devoted to decolonial perspectives in/on psychology. The first two installments feature 6 presentations that consider the psychology of colonial violence. Decolonial approaches propose that colonial violence is not confined to the distant past (i.e., colonialism) but instead persists as coloniality: racialized ways of thinking and being that have their roots in colonial violence, are inherent in the Eurocentric modern order, and are inseparable from modern individualist development. An important implication is that colonial violence extends beyond physical space to psychological space, such that complete liberation requires forms of psychological decolonization. The last three installments feature 9 presentations that consider the coloniality of knowledge in hegemonic psychology. Researchers are not innocent bystanders observing effects of colonial violence from some neutral position. Instead, epistemic violence in psychology occurs via epistemic exclusion of racialized others from the knowledge production process, imperialist imposition of white-washed knowledge products as universal standards, pathologizing forms of explanation that construct racial others as deviants in light of white-washed standards (i.e., epistemological violence; Teo, 2010), and forms of harm (e.g., zero-point epistemology and individualist lifeways) associated with hegemonic psychology’s modern/colonial roots. An important implication is that a decolonial approach may require epistemic disobedience and refusal of the discipline of psychology.

SPSSI’s new webinar series, “Decolonial Perspectives on the Psychological Study of Social Issues,” launches in just two weeks. All webinars are free and open to SPSSI members and non-members alike. Please join the SPSSI for their first webinar in their series, entitled…

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLONIAL VIOLENCE, I: Bodies and Space

Wednesday, September 14, 16:00 UTC (12:00 PM EDT, 9:00 AM PDT)

Convener/Discussant: Kopano Ratele

Presenters:

Melissa Tehee, Erika Ficklin, Devon Isaacs, Racheal Killgore, & Sallie Mack
Fighting for our sisters: Community advocacy and action for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

Johanna Lukate
Space, race and identity: An ethnographic study of the Black hair care and beauty landscape and Black women’s racial identity constructions in England

Anjali Dutt
Refugee experiences in Cincinnati, Ohio: A local case study in the context of global crisis

Click here to find out more!