Just in: “I’m struggling with anxiety at the moment because of all the uncertainties around Covid-19 and what it will mean for people with depression and anxiety.” Indeed, how will all of us cope when the situation develops according to the same curve we see in the rest of the world? The article “Social Recession and how isolation can affect physical and mental health” will give you some answers, but the short message is stay calm, take the necessary preventative steps and remain positive. Read more.
Nowadays it’s so easy to just ask “Dr Google” about anything and everything. Type in whatever you like, and you’ll be directed to a myriad of links to give you answers. But, of course, do not rely on them. If you have done some of the tests below, e.g., for depression or anxiety, and you scored high, please follow up and see a health worker. These are clinical, biological illnesses, and you need medical care. Click below for questionnaires.
In every case, please discuss the self-rating findings with your health worker after you have completed these questionnaires on SADAG’s website:
You can go to SADAG’s support group page to find a support group near you:
For more information:
The Ithemba Foundation presented two writing therapy workshops on 7 and 14 March in Stellenbosch. Both were booked out weeks before the time, and we were privileged to host Ithemba supporters from far and wide – even from Gauteng.
The workshops (in Afrikaans, based on Lizette Rabe’s book Om tot verhaal te kom (to be found in your nearest book store, meaning to “find yourself again”), were on the therapeutic benefits of different types of writing, from journaling, to blogging, even to doodling, and yes, including that biggie: memoir writing. Dana Snyman and Erna Oosthuizen and their Swarthond products were also present. Here are some pictures of the day:
Statistics show that medical professionals are among the most likely to suffer from depression – and thus also depression that can develop to a fatal stage, as we have so tragically seen with the death of Prof Bongani Mayosi, Dean of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, in July 2018. There are studies that indicate that burnout cases amongst medical students are estimated at between 45% and 71%.
Last year, Ithemba initiated South Africa’s first CrazySocks4Docs (CS4D) Day – welcomed with appreciation and enthusiasm by the medical profession, especially also by medical students on our medical campuses. For 2020, CS4D Day will be held on 29 May. For this year’s event we want to highlight that we, as the public, should #Care4OurCares. Therefore, Ithemba will be focusing on our future health workers: medical students. We will be inviting them to post their #TopTips4Wellness on Ithemba’s Facebook page. The first 100 on each campus will receive a pair of happily mismatched socks for their effort! Furthermore, we invite all medical students, medical faculty staff, the whole of the medical fraternity, and, of course, the public as a whole, to wear funky mismatched socks on Friday 29 May. All medical students on the different campuses will again be encouraged to post their “sock selfies” on Ithemba’s Facebook page, simultaneously encouraging family and friends to “like” their sock selfies. This just might win the owner R1 000 cash, as on each campus the sock selfie’s owner with the most “likes” will be rewarded with R1 000 cash.
10 October is the World Health Organisation’s Mental Health Awareness Day, and the whole of October is South Africa’s Mental Health Awareness Month. So do your bit, and join us at our annual Hope Hike and Hope Bike on Sunday, 4 October, at Blauwklippen Estate just outside of Stellenbosch, as well as on 18 October in the Peace10 Walk at the Cape Town Marathon. (Of course, you can always do the 42,2 km marathon…) For the Peace10, or the marathon, please enter through Ithemba – that way you get discount, and Ithemba, as the only charity participating in the name of mental health, gets funds for our two public benefit goals, namely to raise awareness of depression and related diseases as clinical illnesses, and to support research. For entries for the Hope Hike/Bike, you can already enter on https://www.entryninja.com/events?search=hope+hike, and for enquiries on the Cape Town Marathon’s events, you can email ithembafoundation@mweb.co.za. Join us! It is not only fun, healthy and wholesome, but for a good cause!
ITHEMBA FOUNDATION - NPC 2012/171250/08 - PBO 930/048/019