Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
12 October 2020
|
Story Dr Cindé Greyling
|
Photo Supplied
Exercise and nutrition can work wonders for your mental health – you don’t even have to ‘feel like’ or ‘enjoy’ moving around and eating well for it to work – it does its thing anyway.
Nowadays, people talk about mental health like it is the common cold – which is good! But do you know what it really means? Being mentally healthy does not only refer to the absence of a mental illness but includes your emotional and social well-being. One would almost want to add physical well-being too, since a healthy body does indeed support a healthy mind. However, since so many people consider themselves ‘mental health experts’, some myths have been sold as truths.
Myth #1 – You are doomed.
Nope. Never. You are never doomed. There is always help. Mental-health therapies range from self-help, talk therapy, medication, to hospitalisation in some cases. Somewhere on this spectrum of treatments, there will be something that works for you. But you must be willing to get the help and do the work. For starters, exercise and nutrition can work wonders – you do not even have to ‘feel like’ or ‘enjoy’ moving around and eating well for it to work – it does its thing anyway.
Myth #2 – It won’t affect you.
It may. Research suggests that one in five people may suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives. Being well now does not mean that it will stay that way. Biological and environmental factors both impact your mental health. Hopefully not, but at some point, you may experience an event that affects your mental health.
To remain integrated in a community is always beneficial
for anyone suffering from a mental or physical condition.
Myth #3 – Someone struggling with mental health must be left alone.
Hardly! To remain integrated in a community is always beneficial for anyone suffering from a mental or physical condition. You do not need to fix them, but to remain a friend. Continue to invite them, even if they decline. Do not judge, and do not try to understand. Just stay around.
Go and be kind to yourself, and to those around you.
Inaugural lecture challenges leaders in higher education
2012-10-30
|
|
Dr Mamphela Ramphele
Photo: Stephen Collett
29 October 2012 |
Lecture (Pdf format)
According to international statistics, South Africa’s school performance is rated 140th out of 144 countries. South Africa is also ranked 143rd out of 144 countries when it comes to the quality of mathematics and science. About 600 000 South African graduates are unemployed and about 500 000 learners are failed by our current education system.
Dr Mamphela Ramphele brought these shocking statistics to the light at the inaugural lecture of the Annual Prestige Lecture at the Faculty of Education on Thursday 25 October 2012 at the University of the Free State (UFS).
This lecture will henceforth be known as the Mamphela Ramphele Prestige Lecture.
Dr Ramphelefocused her lecture on ‘Educating the 21st century citizen’.
“One of the defining characteristics of the 21st century is the vast number of choices that confront us every day at a personal, professional and political level.”
She asked if 21st century South Africans are equipped with the skills to make the choices that confront them daily.
“The failure to transform our apartheid education into one characterized by equity and excellence, is producing graduates who lack self-confidence.”
Dr Ramphele said that in South Africa about 1/6th of government expenditure goes to education, but the outcomes remain shocking.
For Dr Ramphele the answer lies in creating platforms for open conversation about South Africa’s painful past and the agenda for radical socio-economic restructuring should include the fundamental transformation of education.
She praised the UFS, under its current inspirational leadership, for its role as change agents through the education.
Prof. Rita Niemann, senior professor at the Faculty said the Annual Mamphela Ramphele lecture is to further expand and celebrate education in South Africa.
“Dr Ramphela has given us so much food for thought by challenging leaders in higher education to speak out about the questionable state of education in South Africa and to become engaged in the ‘revolution of the spirit’ in order to deliver citizens who own and shape the country.”