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The New Face of Student Mental Wellness at the UFS

08 February 2022 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Charl Devenish

Dr Munita Dunn-Coetzee has joined the University of the Free State as the new Director of Student Counselling and Development. This is after an eleven-year stay at Stellenbosch University as the Deputy Director of the Centre for Student Structures and Communities, and later as the Director of the Centre for Student Counselling and Development.

Dr Dunn-Coetzee’s role at the UFS

As leader of the department, Dr Dunn-Coetzee sees her role as one in which she is responsible for moving her team forward. “My role is to really look at what the team needs. This is from infrastructure right through to their own personal development, and to making sure that they have what they need to get their jobs done,” she stated. In addition, Dr Dunn-Coetzee’s responsibilities include, “looking at our strategic intent, aligning with what the university wants, being relevant in terms of our service delivery, and connecting enough with the students”. In fact, one of the things she is excited about is learning from the students at the University of the Free State. “The big thing for me is to make contact with students and to engage with them about what is going on at ground level; the one thing I don’t want to be is someone who sits in the office, sends emails, and think I know what’s going on,” she explained.

A commitment to the mental health of UFS students

Although her two predecessors were internal appointments, Dr Dunn-Coetzee argues that being an external appointment allows her to have a fresh perspective. As such, one of her main priorities for the year is looking at student leaders, day residences, residences on campus, and residential heads, and analysing whether they are empowered enough to have conversations about mental-health issues with students. “The one thing that concerns me is that we have been online for two years, and now that we are telling students to come back to campus, it might evoke a level of anxiety in some students,” she explained. Therefore, ensuring that the department is student-centred in everything it does is very important to Dr Dunn-Coetzee. This varies from the way in which students are dealt with, how emails are responded to, and how students are treated when they walk into the Kovsie Health Building.

A long-term vision for the department and the university

Even though she has not been at the University of the Free State for very long, Dr Dunn-Coetzee has some long-term goals that are bound to positively impact both the students and the staff in her department. “I would like to have a research focus within our department; it is very easy to say that we are doing good work and that we have an impact on our students, but we need to have something that proves it,” she said. Therefore, an evidence-based approach is one of the directions she would like to pursue in her department. In addition, Dr Dunn-Coetzee argues that there is a need for a space in which intern psychologists can be trained. “It keeps your current staff on their toes, and it helps you to really play a role in developing psychologists in South Africa,” she expressed. Therefore, opening this space for young psychologists is something she hopes to make a reality in her time at the university. Furthermore, developing her staff and ensuring that they grow their skill set is an important goal she would like to achieve. “My focus is not to have people work here for thirty years; I need to empower them so that they can develop as much as they can. Of course, I love having them here, but in the event that they want to work somewhere else I need to make sure that they are skilled,” she said. Lastly, a goal she is adamant to achieve is to ensure that the service delivery by Student Counselling and Development is of a high standard on all three campuses.

As such, Dr Dunn-Coetzee would like to be viewed by the student community as accessible and approachable. “I would like for students to walk in here and feel comfortable; it doesn’t matter what you identify as – there is a space for you here,” she said.

News Archive

When you are deaf, you have to work very hard to join in the conversation

2014-09-11

Dr Magteld Smith

A researcher at the University of the Free State is part of an overseas audiological breakthrough, after receiving a newly developed cochlear implant processor.

Dr Magteld Smith, researcher at the University of the Free State’s Department of Otorhinolaryngology, is the first South African to receive the Rondo cochlear implant processor from Med-El in Austria, manufacturers of cochlear implants and audiology-assisting appliances.

In the field of cochlear implants, the Rondo device is very advanced in the sense that the single-unit device is wireless and easily adapts to the sound of various environments (i.e. nature, conference halls, planes and phones). It also enables the receiver of a cochlear implant to hear more than one sound at a time – something that wasn’t previously possible.

Dr Smith tells about the meaning of the device in just a short time: “For the first time I can take a walk with my dog and hear both our footsteps on the gravel of the dirt road. I can hear my own footsteps, as well as the chirping of three different birds. All at the same time.”

Dr Smith, who is currently devoting her research to the medical-social model of the global organisation, International Classification of Functioning, Disabilities and Health, as well as research in all fields of deafness, relates the anxiety, frustration and depression which formed part of her daily existence. It also complicated and undermined her academic participation.

“Deafness is very traumatic. When you are deaf, you have to work so much harder to compete in a hearing world and to join in the conversation. Because of your deafness you become anxious about misunderstandings in the workplace.”

Dr Smith is working hard and constantly not to take a back seat in the academy due to her deafness. On completion of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship programme, she received a certificate signed by the American president, Barack Obama, and was named as one of the top three researchers among 400 researchers from 192 countries. Only two South Africans are selected every year by the American State and International Institute for Education.

In June this year, she delivered a presentation of her work and research at the 13th International Conference on Cochlear Implants in Munich, Germany. In July this year, she delivered a presentation at the 5th International Conference for Global Hearing Health. In August she was awarded a scholarship from the Golden Key International Honour Society for outstanding scholastic proficiency and academic merit.

“As a child, my parents were told that I was ineducably disabled. Today, I am grateful for the endless speech therapy since my toddler days, and to my dear mother, Jo, and late father, Chris Boshoff, and their firm belief in God which made them believe in me as a person with a congenital deafness. I am grateful for their unconditional love, endless patience, encouragement and support through my long journey in a competitive hearing world. This, together with the help of technology, enabled me to make a significant contribution to the academic world. Everything in my life is undeserved grace, pure kindness.”

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