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27 March 2018 Photo Earl Coetzee
Research focus on HIV and TB stigma among healthcare workers
Posters reading, “Let’s Stop Stigma” urge healthcare workers to ”Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others.” Pictured here are Dr Asta Rau, Director of CHSR&D and Dr Michelle Engelbrecht, deputy director of the centre.
Researchers working on an internationally funded project are tackling a key occupational health issue: HIV and TB stigma among Free State healthcare workers. They developed and rolled out interventions to decrease stigma and will soon measure the effects. 
In this four-year project, UFS researchers from the Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CHSR&D) are partnering with Antwerp University and the Free State Department of Health.  

Stigma is like an invisible mark 
A project leader at the CHSR&D, Dr Asta Rau, says most research on stigma in public health focuses on HIV stigma towards patients. Little is done on stigma among healthcare workers themselves. 
Dr Rau says that stigma undermines people’s dignity and causes them suffering. It can even stop them from seeking healthcare. Stigma threatens the health of healthcare workers and the stability of the health system, which is already under strain due to personnel shortages. 

Interventions to make a difference
The research identified two types of stigma - external stigma that can be seen around us, e.g. in the way healthcare workers speak about or treat one another and internal stigma that happens when healthcare workers take this ‘outside’ stigma and turn it inward on themselves. 

Dr Rau says the interventions involve training healthcare workers about what stigma is and how to go about reducing it. “We give them the knowledge and tips on how to communicate when they encounter stigma. It is up to them to then use that to fight stigma.” A communication campaign with posters and branded social marketing materials supports the training. The campaign uses a single slogan: ”Let’s Stop Stigma” and urges healthcare workers to ”Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others."

News Archive

Kovsies deliver eight Brightest Young Minds
2014-08-15


Front, from the left: Michael van Niekerk, Thabiso Letselebe and William Clayton; Back, from the left: Gopolang Kgaile, Thokozane Mahlanga and Mpho Sefo; Lisa Coetzee and Lehlohonolo Mofokeng were not present during the taking of the photograph.

Eight Kovsies have been selected as part of 100 delegates for the 2014 Brightest Young Minds (BYM) summit.

Thabiso Letselebe (Chief Delegate of the UFS BYM), Michael van Niekerk, William Clayton, Gopolang Kgaile, Thokozane Mahlanga, Mpho Sefo, Lisa Coetzee and Lehlohonolo Mofokeng will attend the BYM summit from 29 August to 2 September 2014 in Johannesburg.
BYM is a youth-driven non-profit organisation that identifies South Africa’s most passionate young people. The organisation equips these young leaders with the skills and networks needed to create positive change.

Each year, 100 participants are invited to a five-day summit, based on criteria of innovation, leadership, civic responsibility and academic accomplishment. Delegates discuss challenges facing the nation with respected leaders and then design start-up like solutions to these challenges.

Post-summit alumni have access to resources for success and BYM continues to encourage social entrepreneurship. BYM has demonstrated success in mobilising young people for nearly fifteen years.

BYM has been the launch pad for several successful business and social endeavours. Some of the ideas developed by BYM alumni include the AIDS Industry Management Standard, Taxi Smart Card System, MiniSass Water Monitoring System, Investec Young Women in Finance conference, Tertiary School in Business Administration, Twenty30 and Women in Engineering.

BYM attracts a diverse group of participants in terms of academic, racial, geographic and socio-economic backgrounds. In a society marred by divides, BYM is proving the power of diversity. The organisation’s participants would not be as successful in moving the nation forward if it were not for the diversity of their experience.

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