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Rachana Desai on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

Rachana is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre of Excellence in Human Development at Wits University. Her research looks at how us children navigate our digital worlds in this day and age, and how social media could affect our mental health. To understand the challenges we face as young South Africans, Rachana uses storytelling and technology to capture the lived experiences of children.

Simphiwe Simelane on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

On Zoom to talk about the topic of mental health, we have Dr Simphiwe Simelane, a PhD student at the Centre for Autism Research in Africa at UCT. Her experience as a doctor has driven her research interests which include health systems, health policy and mental health. Her PhD project focuses on strengthening child and adolescent mental health services and systems in South Africa.

Stefani Du Toit on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

Stefani du Toit – Researcher at Institute of Life Course Health Research in the Department of Global Health at Stellenbosch University – Stefani is working towards her PhD in Public Health, which focuses on adolescent depression during times of adversity. For this year’s Gauge, she contributed to research on the role of schools in promoting and protecting mental health for children.

Lizette Berry on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

Lizette Berry is a Senior Researcher at the Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town. She holds a Masters in Social Science, specialising in social policy and management. She has close to 20 years’ experience in child policy research and experience in child and family social work. Lizette has an interest in the care and development of children and her research focuses on parenting and early childhood development policy and violence prevention interventions.

Tamsen Rochat on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

Tamsen is a Welcome Trust Intermediate Fellow in Public Health and Tropical Medicine, as well as an Associate Professor at the DSI/NRF Centre of Excellence in Human Development at Wits. She joined us on Zoom to talk about the impact of stress on mental health and the ways of better coping with challenges that affect our mental health.

Crick Lund on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

The social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age. There are many factors that influence these conditions, and we believe that creating more positive conditions, we can have a healthier and more caring society. To talk to us about this topic we had Prof Crick Lund, the Co-Director of the Centre for Global Mental Health at King’s College London, and Honorary Professor in the Alan J. Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health at UCT.

Sharon Kleintjes on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

Sharon Kleintjes currently holds the position of the Vera Grover Chair and Professor of Intellectual disability in the Department of Psychiatry of Health at UCT. Her research includes recovery-orientated public mental health policy and service development, and involvement of service users with psychosocial and intellectual disability in their recovery.

Muriel Mafico on Child & Adolescent Mental Health - Child Gauge 2022

Muriel has worked as the Deputy Representative since October 2019 and before that she was the Deputy Representative for the Eastern Caribbean Area and Swaziland. She spoke to us about the importance of children’s mental health, what we hope to achieve with this issue of the Child Gauge, and to reflect on the lessons learnt from this publication.

Sesethu interviews Mandy Newman 01 October 2022

In light of World Cerebral Palsy Day on the 6^th of October, we will be chatting to Mandy Newman – a board member of the Western Cape Cerebral Palsy Association. Mandy is 58 years old and was born with Cerebral Palsy. She moved into a Facility for Cerebral Palsy Adults after staying independently for 21 years and she currently works for a NGO for the handicapped as the Admin-Administrator.

Emily interviews Gbets Rocks Cricket Team 16 September 2022

The Gbets Rocks visited Red Cross Children’s Hospital on the 16th of September to hand out toys and cuddly teddies for the children in the wards. The Gbets Rocks are based in Paarl at Boland Park, with JP Duminy, a former Protea Player, as their Head Coach. The team forms part of Cricket South Africa’s first division teams and won the CSA T20 Challenge earlier this year! Emily interview two members of the team - Siya Mahima and Ruan Terblanche.