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Divisional Webinar: Counselling Psychology in the Public ‘Health’ System

Divisional Webinar: Counselling Psychology in the Public ‘Health’ System

by | Jul 6, 2023 | CPD Opportunities, The South African Association for Counselling Psychology (SAACP)

Divisional Webinar: Counselling Psychology in the Public ‘Health’ System

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Webinar Abstract

Counselling psychologists have been faced with numerous challenges over the past decade. The challenges appearing to emanate mostly from the scope of practice for psychologists first promulgated in 2011.

Although this scope of practice has now been withdrawn, the damage that it has caused to the practice of counselling psychologists, particularly to the legitimacy of their work with various populations, has remained until this day. Additional issues have arisen, more recently the issue of transverse registration which has been perceived as having the potential to negatively impact counselling psychology as a category. Ultimately the future of the work of counselling psychologists may be shaped by the forthcoming National Health Insurance (NHI). In this webinar we wish to expand on the ongoing conversations on the role of counselling psychologists in South Africa by looking at the work of counselling psychologists in the public health and education system. We attempt to explicate some of the challenges and opportunities that face counselling psychologists in public practice, to find ways to ensure the viability of the category.

PRESENTERS

Dr Ewald Crause

Dr Ewald Crause

Panelist

Bio

Dr Ewald Crause is the Senior Psychologist and Provincial Programme Coordinator for School Psychological Services employed by the Western Cape Education Department. He has worked in public service in two sectors in South Africa (i.e., Education and Corrections) and recently returned from New Zealand, where he worked as a Service Manager for the Ministry of Education. During his time abroad, Dr Crause was nominated to be the chair for the Recruitment and Selection panel, managing the appointments of Psychologists across the four Auckland offices (i.e., an itinerant role). His work also included collaboration with psychology peers in establishing a forum to discuss induction programmes and training needs for newly appointed staff members. He has been a practitioner for 17 years.

FEROZA (MOHAMED) KALDINE

FEROZA (MOHAMED) KALDINE

Panelist

Bio

Feroza Kaldine has been practicing as a Counselling Psychologist for the past 19 years in several contexts including private practice, corporate, academia, non-governmental and the public sector.

She enjoys academia as well as the practical application of psychological theory and she is particularly interested in the relevance of psychological practice in societies such as South Africa, that are characterized social disparities, diversity, and multiple psycho-social challenges. In 2011 she received a Recognition Award from the University of Johannesburg’s Unit for Institutional Advancement for her Community Engagement work with Masters Psychology students in her capacity as lecturer. Feroza is currently in the full-time employ of the Gauteng Province Department of Health, Helen Joseph Academic hospital and joint appointee of WITS University, Department of Psychiatry. She is the Programme Coordinator for the Counselling Psychology Internship programme at Helen Joseph Hospital. In addition to providing psychological interventions for patients from diverse backgrounds and with a variety of presenting concerns (using an integrative therapeutic approach), she provides psychotherapy, psychometric and community psychology-based supervision to Intern Counselling Psychologists. She also manages the Psychology Programmes on the Helen Joseph Chronic Pain and Renal Units and serves on the multi-disciplinary teams of both Units. She is a member of Pain SA and Neuropsychology South Africa.

IJP Special Issue Call for Papers – Tutorials on Quantitative Methods

IJP Special Issue Call for Papers – Tutorials on Quantitative Methods

by | Jun 13, 2023 | Collaborations, Events and Announcements, Professional Development

More and more researchers in psychology and related disciplines are eager to learn how to get the best from their data. Although tutorials on statistical analyses are routinely published by specialised journals, they often assume an advanced statistical background and/or rely on abstract examples that may prevent applied researchers from fully engaging with those techniques. As a result, methodological barriers grow among researchers who do not have a strong quantitative background, which, ultimately, may lead them to use suboptimal statistical techniques.

For more details about this special edition, click here. 

Webinar: Decolonial Feminist Ethics of Care – Recording Out Now!

Webinar: Decolonial Feminist Ethics of Care – Recording Out Now!

by | May 29, 2023 | Events and Announcements, Professional Development

Webinar: Decolonial Feminist Ethics of Care – Recording Out Now!

Webinar Abstract

This webinar, hosted by the Institute for Social and Health Sciences, University of South Africa and the Decolonising Psychology Division of the Psychology Society of South Africa, is based on a panel discussion with scholars located nationally and globally on the relevance of decolonial feminism in pushing back against the colonial academy. It will highlight the ways in which a decolonial feminist ethics of care has become crucial for liberatory scholarship. Moreover, it will feature the ways in which voice, agency and liberation constitute the ubuntu-centric practices of decolonial feminist scholarship. The webinar focus is aligned with the programmatic work of restorative justice against settler-colonialism. To this extent, we have invited colleagues from institutions based in the Global North and Global South to discuss how the objectives of a decolonial feminist ethics of care can reimagine decolonising scholarship. The panellists work in different disciplines with similar objectives of decolonising the curriculum.

Click here to meet the presenters

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 3: Untangling trauma after grief and loss: Diagnostic considerations and treatment guidelines for practitioners

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 3: Untangling trauma after grief and loss: Diagnostic considerations and treatment guidelines for practitioners

by | Apr 4, 2023 | COVID-19, CPD Opportunities, Events and Announcements, Professional Development, PsySSA 2023 CPD Workshop Series

About this workshop:

In recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest and devastating flooding in South Africa has meant that experiences of traumatic grief and loss are not new to our nation.  COVID-19 illuminated the difficulties often facing South Africans who are grieving.  Factors that complicate bereavement came to the fore:  economic fallout, the instability of job security, and the monumental increase in dependency of debt to keep households running.  Funerals became a staple in our public spaces. Such loss of life: Gita Ramjee, Clarence Mini, Kenneth Mthiyane, to name a few of the 101,000 deaths due to Covid-19. 

This workshop aims to assist healthcare practitioners think about traumatic grief through a lens that accounts for South Africa’s complex socio-political and cultural milieu. 

  • Using the recent student protests as a case study, Mr Vhugala Nthakeni will provide a practitioner’s reflection on how prior traumatic experiences and a sense of loss have contributed to how we currently engage with student protests in higher education. 
  • Dr Cornelia Drenth will provide diagnostic considerations for grief as well as some proposals for intervention at an individual level. 
  • Ms Phillipa Haine will engage with how practitioners may can work with children experiencing traumatic grief within the clinical setting. 

The workshop, chaired by Mr Danial Den Hollander,  hopes to provide guidelines for practitioners who are faced with complex traumatic grief cases that arise from the specific historical and contemporary features of South African society.

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 3: Untangling trauma after grief and loss: Diagnostic considerations and treatment guidelines for practitioners

Meet our Presenters

Daniel den Hollander is a clinical psychologist who has worked in specialised mental health care, both in the public and private sectors. His expertise lies in voluntary, involuntary, and forensic treatment care, Complex PTSD and co-occuring addiction work. He has chaired the Psychology Professionals in Public Service Division of PsySSA from 2016-2021. During his term, PiPS became an established voice within parliamental NHI discussions and building key stakeholder relationships with other government departments (e.g. DBE, SARS). He is an activist for mental health care in South Africa. He is passionate about cultivating and promoting empowerment and change: may it be in the therapy room, on radio, at governmental stakeholder meetings, or at conferences. He is a regular feature on SAFM Living Redefined, and contributor for the Mail & Guardian.

Dr Nelia Drenth obtained her MA Degree (Social Work in Health) from the UP and her PhD from NWU. The title of her PhD thesis is Complicated grief in the South African context – A therapeutic intervention programme. 

Dr Drenth is a peer reviewer for International Social Work, British Journal of Social Work, and has also peer reviewed articles for Health SA Gesondheid, a local online professional health care publication.

Dr Drenth is the author and/or co-author of 9 peer reviewed articles with titles related to loss, grief, and bereavement. Two of these articles have been accepted in international peer reviewed social work journals. She authored and co-authored 2 chapters in A. Herbst & G Reitman (Eds). 2016. Trauma counselling. Principles and practice in South Africa today. Cape Town: Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd.

Phillipa Haine is a registered Counselling Psychologist. Phillipa has successfully completed the degrees, BSc (Genetics, Psychology & Human Physiology) and Hons (Psychology) (Cum Laude) at Stellenbosch University, as well as the degree MA (Counselling Psychology) at Rhodes University; she completed her internship at the Rhodes University Student Counselling Centre. She is currently a PhD candidate at Rhodes University. She has a special interest in public mental health, health psychology and community based psychological interventions. Phillipa has a drive to contribute towards improving the accessibility, relevance and credibility of mental healthcare services in South Africa. Phillipa is also a part-time lecturer at Rhodes University teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and currently supervising research at a Masters level. She has published research in various peer-reviewed academic journals. Phillipa also manages a part time private practice where she predominantly works with children, adolescents and young adults.

Vhugala Nthakheni holds BCom Law and LLB qualifications from the University of the Free State and is currently the Manager: Student Life and Governance at the University of Cape Town. Vhugala has worked in the Student Affairs and services sub-sector for over 10 years.

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 3: Untangling trauma after grief and loss: Diagnostic considerations and treatment guidelines for practitioners

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 9: Assessing competency to testify in sexual violence survivors with intellectual disability

by | Mar 26, 2023 | CPD Opportunities, Events and Announcements, Professional Development, PsySSA 2023 CPD Workshop Series

About this workshop:

The workshop addresses (i) the practice aspects of examining and reporting on survivors of rape for whom the courts have questions about their competency to testify, and (ii) the ethical and human rights issues inherent in this work. Among the various legal questions posed by the courts when complainants in sexual violence have possible intellectual disability or other mental disorders, are their competency to testify and the need for an intermediary. The presentation will detail the procedure involved in conducting these examinations, and answering the questions. However, the authors will also highlight the controversial issues that permeate this area of work, namely witnesses’ ability to take the oath or affirmation, the expectations of the court, and the degree of accommodation that is extended (or not extended) to witnesses with intellectual disability. In addition, mental health specialists undertaking these examinations need to consider their primary clinical and advocacy roles which can collide with the role as expert witness, and this dilemma will be engaged.

PsySSA Workshop Series 2023: Workshop 9: Assessing competency to testify in sexual violence survivors with intellectual disability

Meet our Presenters

Anthony Pillay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavioural Medicine at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Principal Clinical Psychologist at Fort Napier Hospital. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the South African Journal of Psychology and his research areas include forensic psychology, women and children’s mental health and social justice issues. He received his post-doctoral training in Maternal and Child Health at Harvard University, and has been a Visiting Clinical Fellow at the Boston Children’s Hospital. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Mauritius, where he also conducts research, and he has published over a hundred papers in journals and books around the world. He is a Past President of the Psychological Society of South Africa.

Anne Kramers-Olen obtained her Masters degree in Social Science (Clinical Psychology) from the then named University of Natal (Pietermaritzburg campus). She completed her internship at the Midlands Hospital Complex in Pietermaritzburg during 1998 and is currently employed at Fort Napier Hospital, where she provides forensic mental health and psychosocial rehabilitation services. She has worked in the public and private sector, and has published papers in the area of ethics, forensics, intellectual disability and psychosocial rehabilitation. She is an associate editor of the South African Journal of Psychology and honorary lecturer at the Department of Behavioural Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal.