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01 June 2021 | Story ANDRÉ DAMONS | Photo ANDRÉ DAMONS
Dr Nicholas Pearce, Head of Surgery at the School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences UFS – who is also heading the Universitas Academic Hospital COVID-19 Task Team – shows off the crazy socks donated by Cipla and handed over by representatives from the School of Clinical Medicine in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS).

Investec Private Banking supports the #CrazySocks4Docs initiative in the undergraduate medical programme with the theme, ‘Socks to start a conversation’, to encourage breaking down the stigma around mental health among doctors. On Friday 4 June, they provided medical students with a complimentary pair of socks to wear on the day.

Investec will be running a social media campaign until 9 June.  Once the students have received their socks from Investec, they need to post a picture of themselves with their socks on either Instagram or Facebook or both, using the hashtags #2021UFS #Investec# #CrazySocks4Docs #StartTheConversation #YoungProfessionals.
The prizes for the best social media posts are five Takealot vouchers worth R1 000 each. 

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers around the world have not only battled this deadly disease, but also their own mental-health issues brought on by their daily experience of this pandemic. 

COVID-19 has placed healthcare workers’ fears, fatigue, burnout, depression, and anxiety even more in the spotlight. Collectively, we have become more aware of how grateful we are to healthcare workers for standing in the front line for us.

It is for this reason that the annual #CrazySocks4Docs initiative is so important – to show support for healthcare workers. Dr Geoffrey Toogood, an Australian cardiologist and advocate for mental health, came up with the idea of the #CrazySocks4Docs Day – an initiative that aims to create awareness for the vulnerability of doctors and other healthcare workers to mental illness and to destigmatise help-seeking behaviour in the medical community.

This year, the #CrazySocks4Docs Day is on 4 June. 

The Ithemba Foundation, which brought this campaign to South Africa, launched a competition on the campuses of all medical schools, with a prize of R1 000 for the student with the most likes for her/his sock selfie.

Raise awareness about the pressure healthcare workers face

Dr Lynette van der Merwe, Undergraduate Medical Programme Director, School of Clinical Medicine at the University of the Free State (UFS), says on the first Friday of June every year, everyone in the healthcare community, as well as the public, are encouraged to wear fun, funky, colourful, or mismatched socks to raise awareness about the pressure healthcare workers face. 

“Medical professionals are just as vulnerable to the same mental-health issues – fear, anger, fatigue, burnout, anxiety, and depression – as anyone else.  The COVID-19 pandemic has spotlighted healthcare workers and the stigma around admitting that ‘I am not OK.’ Just as much as we need healthcare professionals to heal us, we also need to take care of them and support their mental-health needs,” says Dr Van der Merwe. 

According to her, the UFS School of Clinical Medicine has been part of the #CrazySocks4Docs initiative since 2019, and this year will be no different.  

This year

This year, Investec Private Banking will support the #CrazySocks4Docs initiative in the undergraduate medical programme with the theme, ‘Socks to start a conversation’, to encourage breaking down the stigma around mental health among doctors.  They will provide medical students with a complimentary pair of socks to wear on the day.
Investec will be running a social media campaign until 9 June.  Once the students have received their socks from Investec, they need to post a picture of themselves with their socks on either Instagram or Facebook or both, using the hashtags #2021UFS #Investec# #CrazySocks4Docs #StartTheConversation #YoungProfessionals.
The prizes for the best social media posts are five Takealot vouchers worth R1 000 each.

Investec Private Banking has been the bank of choice for SA’s top medical professionals for more than 30 years.
Investec partners with medical interns or medical officers working in community service for the Department of Health, as well as medical specialists or registrars working towards becoming specialists.

Cipla has partnered with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) for the 2021 #CrazySocks4Docs campaign to raise awareness about the fact that our doctors are simply human and are dealing with a lot of ‘stuff’.  By encouraging healthcare professionals and the public to wear their funky socks on Friday 4 June 2021, people will be standing (literally) in solidarity alongside our healthcare workers.  This is essential in a country with a chronic shortage of doctors and specialists and a massive disease burden. 

• The following hashtags can be used on Friday 4 June 2021 along with your sock selfies: #CrazySocks4Docs #CS4D #CreateAwareness #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness #Care4OurCarers

Read more about Dr Toogood’s ‘Embracing our vulnerability in medicine’ 

News Archive

Kovsie TV Launched
2015-05-06

Victor Ngubeni, Grace Thoabala, Nangamso Dlatu, Aisha Poswa, Lesego Maakamedi, Nothando Hlope, Aldene vd Merwe and Lawrence Siyoko

“We have to change our university before we can change our country.”

 

There is a revolution at hand, and students are requesting new and exciting platforms on which they can voice themselves. Kovsie TV aims to do just that for Kovsie students. 

 

As a student initiative, the steam behind it is SRC Student Development and Environmental Affairs, Victor Ngubeni. He says that it is only right that it be by the students themselves. The launch saw many from the campus community gathered out of curiosity and excitement for the new venture. The evening started out as quite a classy frenzy, which had attendees clearly prepared for the level of broadcasting that the launch would showcase.

 

The initial idea is to increase the number of platforms where students can receive information. The Student Media portfolio, which oversees the functioning of student media platforms, aims to make Kovsie TV as autonomous as possible. As an introductory initiative, it will aid in the sharing and telling of students’ stories.

 

It is important to mention the preparation process that was endured by the many hopefuls who auditioned, hoping to make it as one of the Kovsie TV presenters. For more than three weeks, the panel of judges sieved through the contestants until they had just six rough diamonds. Then, for the first time, the audience met the faces that they would become familiar with from this point.

 

As Ngubeni stressed during his speech, Kovsie TV would not serve as propaganda machine for the SRC, as many might have asked about the relationship that could be expected between the two. The architects of Kovsie TV hope that, as a student initiative, it will inspire a new era in student activism.

 

When asked about the concept behind this new platform, Ngubeni informed us that, “the concept is to have a twenty-minute campus TV show highlighting what goes on around campus so that students know, and so that we can get them participating in campus life activities.”

 

This is a student initiative whose future will depend solely on the students themselves.

 

Presenters:

Nangamso Dlathu – Studio presenter

Grace Thoabala – Studio presenter

Lesego Maakamedi – Social events

Nothando Hlophe – Current affairs

Aldine van der Merwe – Culture events and Vox-Pop

Mbulelo Siyoko – Culture and Vox-Pop

Aisha Phoswa ? Sports

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