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19 October 2018 Photo Anja Aucamp
Itumeleng Tsatsi - Using Occupational Therapy to tackle mental health
“Every opportunity you get is a chance that leads you to your goals, making the best of it; a journey of a thousand steps begins with just one.” - Itumeleng Tsatsi
Polokwane-born Itumeleng Tsatsi, junior lecturer in Occupational Therapy at the University of the Free State (UFS), pledged to improve the quality of life of South African citizens through her study and practice of Occupational Therapy.

Itumeleng Tsatsi was named in the Mail and Guardian Top 200 list of South Africans under the age of 35 who have done exceptional work in their fields, aiming to uplift their society.

Tsatsi explained that working as a clinician at the Thabamoopo Psychiatric Hospital in Lebowakgomo, Limpopo, lit a fire in her that was charged at dissociating and destigmatising the views that people associate with the term ‘mental health’.  Her focus as an occupational therapist zooms mostly into tackling mental-health issues and the injustices faced by people, making use of the services offered in the system.

World Mental Health Day is observed on 10 October every year, with the overall objective of raising awareness of mental-health issues around the world, and mobilising efforts in support of mental health. Tsatsi elaborated that one of the many challenges she faced in clinical practice, was the constructed theories of mental health that were too westernised and did not meet the needs of South African populations, particularly in the rural areas. Her aim is to create a niche area in academia and train occupational therapists to care for their citizens on a practical basis and not only through textbook guidelines that aren’t entirely applicable to the South African context.

With October being Mental Health Awareness Month, Tsatsi further highlighted that she wants to optimise the training of Occupational Therapy students at the UFS by ensuring that their attitude towards mental health as a specialisation in their field is a positive one, due to the growing number of South Africans subjected to mental-health issues today. 

Furthermore, her study aims to empower mental-healthcare users to speak up about their experiences in mental-health institutions, to aid their reintegration into communities and create supportive environments where they can equally contribute to society. 

News Archive

Dr Johann Rossouw receives 2015 ATKV SA Academy Award for his work in Philosophy
2015-12-18

Description: Dr Johann Rossouw Tags: Dr Johann Rossouw

Dr Johann Rossouw

Dr Johann Rossouw, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of the Free State, was recently selected as one on the winners of the 2015 ATKV SA (Afrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurvereniging) Academy Awards. Dr Rossouw was one of only six winners that were honoured nationwide for their academic articles.

ATKV SA Academy Award

This award has immense value for Dr Rossouw, since “it’s proof that original endemic thinking is still valid today, despite the massive pressure on Afrikaans. It also undermines the parochial view that English is the only language in which thought takes place.”

The annual ATKV SA Academy Awards honours six Afrikaans articles that are published in accredited journals in a specific year. Four of the prizes are awarded for articles in the Humanities and two for articles in the Natural Sciences. The South African Academy for Science and Arts handled the selection process.

First theological-philosophical criticism on Stiegler

Dr Rossouw was honoured for two articles in the Humanities that were published on Litnet Academic. The articles deal with the theological-philosophical approaches of the first two volumes of Bernard Stiegler's influential La Technique et letemps (Technics and Time) trilogy. “Stiegler wrote the trilogy in conversation with Heidegger's Being and Time,” Dr Rossouw says. “With Heidegger claiming that the technique closes off our world, Stiegler argues that the technique helps to unlock and establish our world as a unique kind of memory in certain conditions. That is why Stiegler argues that the technique is the life lived through other means than life itself.”

The essence of Dr Rossouw's criticism against Stiegler is that he “pursues Christianity through means other than Christianity itself. To my knowledge, this is the first theological-philosophical criticism on Stiegler, and to all intents and purposes the first criticism on his work, with one or two exceptions.”

 

 

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