Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Breaking silence around mental health

10 June 2019 | Story Zama Feni | Photo Zama Feni

CrazySocksForDocs — UFS medical students displaying multi-coloured mismatched socks as they heeded the call of the #CrazySocks4Doc campaign to raise awareness about mental health in the medical profession.

Hundreds of pairs of socks were dished out to medical students last week during the campus launch of the #CrazySocks4Docs (#CS4D) awareness campaign that seeks to help break the silence around mental-health illness in the medical profession.

More than 600 medical students from the University of the Free State (UFS) School of Internal Medicine heeded the call by the non-governmental organisation, Ithemba Foundation, whose mission is to educate the public around mental health – specifically depression and related diseases such as anxiety disorders – and to support research.

On Monday, 3 June 2019, the Ithemba Foundation launched the CS4D campaign countrywide at all tertiary institutions with medical schools to help break the silence around mental health in the medical profession.

“We have ensured a sponsorship of 10 000 pairs of mismatched socks for medical students, to be distributed according to student numbers at each medical campus,” Ithemba Foundation said in a statement.

Students waking up to the call

A large number of UFS medical students gladly embraced the call and helped themselves to pairs of multi-coloured socks at the James Moroka Building foyer on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Judy Modise, a second-year medical student, said she was impressed with the initiative.
“I think this is a very interesting campaign, as we all know the devastating effects of mental health in society, and more specifically on doctors,” she said.

UFS has risen to the challenge

In a widely published opinion piece on mental health in October last year, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor Prof Francis Petersen, stated that one in every three South Africans suffers from some form of mental disorder.

He mentioned that, “The university has just released a first draft of its first-ever Student Mental Health Policy.”

“This policy seeks to redress the inequalities and disadvantages created by prejudice and discrimination against persons with mental-health disabilities and difficulties,” said Prof Petersen.

Destigmatising mental health is key

The Ithemba Foundation further stated that, “It is critical that we start the conversation around mental health in the health profession – especially among the next generation of medical professionals, as the stigma surrounding the illness in doctors persists. Wearing mismatched, brightly-coloured socks may seem like a weird place to begin, but to care for others, we also have to care for ourselves and each other.”

The purpose of the campaign is to create awareness about the highly stressful nature of the medical profession; the need for doctors to seek help when needed, both mental and physical; the need for those in the health profession to help one another and the need to reshape the culture of the health care industry and to ensure that you will have a new mindset concerning your own mental health.

News Archive

UFS sets trend for higher education institutions

2005-09-21

The University of the Free State (UFS) offers more service-learning courses than any other higher education institution in the country and has the highest number of students enrolled for these service-learning courses.

This was the research findings on higher education institutions conducted between 2001 and 2004 by the Joint Education Trust (JET) into service-learning courses. These are courses which seek to integrate service to the community into the academic core of higher education institutions.

The results of this research indicated that the UFS is one of the few higher education institutions in South Africa that have made progress in integrating community engagement into the mainstream academy.

According to the findings 2 233 students at the UFS participated in service-learning courses supported by JET, while 858 students at the University of Transkei (UNITRA), 636 students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and only 600 students at the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) participated in service-learning courses.

In total there were 6 930 students participating in service learning courses supported by the JET at 10 institutions throughout the country.

The research also found that out of a total of 182 service-learning courses supported by JET countrywide, the UFS had the highest number of such courses at 42, followed by WITS with 28, the University of Kwazulu Natal with 26, UWC 24 and UNITRA with 22.

Nationally, most of the service-learning courses at higher education institutions are offered in the human sciences (62), followed by health sciences (37), education (26), agriculture (14), and economic sciences (11).

According to leading academics, service-learning is a credit-bearing, educational exercise in which students participate in an organised service activity that meets identified community needs and helps the student to gain a deeper understanding of course content and a sense of civic responsibility.

Reacting to the research findings, the Rector and Vice-chancellor of the UFS, Prof Frederick Fourie, said the university feels strongly that there should be integration of service-learning into the academic core of the institution.

“Through service-learning modules the UFS can give expression to its role of service to the community as an institution of higher learning, producing quality graduates who understand the communities in which they will have to function for the rest of their lives,” Prof Fourie said.

According to Mr Jo Lazarus, the project manager of the Community-Higher Education – Service Partnership (CHESP), which falls under the JET, a number of institutions have identified community engagement as a strategic priority and have allocated significant resources from their central budget towards its implementation.

Mr Lazarus said most students have an overwhelmingly positive attitude towards service learning.

“A large percentage of students surveyed indicated that their service-learning course helped to improve their relationship skills, leadership skills and project planning abilities. As significant is the fact that these courses also benefited them in terms of their awareness of cultural differences and opened their eyes about their own cultural stereotypes,” said Mr Lazarus.

“The key challenge still hampering the integration of service-learning as a core function of academic activity is that some institutions still see service-learning as an add-on, and nice-to-have activity,” he said.

According to Mr Lazarus higher education must demonstrate social responsibility and commitment to the common good by making available expertise and infrastructure for service-learning as a form of community engagement.

Media release
Issued by:  Lacea Loader
   Media Representative
   Tel: (051) 401-2584
   Cell: 083 645 2454
   E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
   20 September 2005

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept