Migration and mental health care in South Africa: the question of language in context.

Access to mental healthcare for migrants is a global problem, with many challenges and barriers, including the issue of language discordance. Most research on this topic comes from well-resourced countries such as those in Europe, Northern America, and Australasia despite the fact that most migration occurs from poorer contexts, such as many in Africa, into more closely situated countries. As an introductory part of a broader international study, we started out investigating the views of key stakeholders in South Africa on language barriers to accessing mental healthcare for migrants and suggestions for how to address these.

Parental communication dynamics with children who stutter: A scoping review.

Background: Parents of children who stutter (CWS) are often uncertain, hesitant and uncomfortable to communicate openly with their CWS and other people on the topic of the stutter and disclosing the stutter to the child and/or other people.

Aims: To map and understand the dynamics involved when parents communicate with their CWS and other people on the topic of their child's stuttering and disclosure of the stutter to the child and/or other people.

Methods: This scoping review was conducted in accordance with Joanna Briggs Institute methodology.

"They are not even called by name": Security guards in a South African psychiatric hospital.

Background: Security guards (SGs) play a significant role in health care and are an integral part of many psychiatric institutions. While their main duty is to ensure service users' (SUs) and staff's safety and protect the premises, they are also called upon for other tasks, often ones for which they are not adequately trained. This study aimed to explore the roles, formal and informal tasks performed, training, working conditions and well-being of SGs working in psychiatric services.

'The doctor doesn't understand Xhosa and the service user doesn't understand English' - exploring the role of security guards acting as informal interpreters in psychiatric care in South Africa.

Introduction: Assigning qualified interpreters is considered one of the most effective approaches to facilitate communication in language-discordant encounters in mental healthcare. However, particularly in settings with fewer resources, they are not always available and informal practices are often used.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate informal interpreting practices in mental healthcare in South Africa, focusing on security guards (SGs) serving as interpreters.

Psychiatrists' experiences of involuntary care in South Africa: dilemmas for practice in challenging contexts.

Providing for people with psychosocial conditions in crisis is a complex and controversial endeavour that has gained significant attention over the past decade. This increased focus is driven by global calls to reduce coercion, including by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, who interpret Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in General Comment 1 to advocate for the replacement of substituted decision-making with supported decision-making. Psychiatrists occupy a central role in determining how to care for and respond to individuals with psychosocial conditions in crisis in the midst of these debates.

HIV and gender identity expression among transfeminine people in the Western Cape, South Africa - a thematic analysis of data from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial.

Introduction: Transfeminine people in South Africa have a high HIV risk due to structural, behavioural, and psychosocial factors. Transfeminine people and feminine identifying men who have sex with men (MSM) are often conflated or grouped with transgender or MSM categories in HIV service programming, although they don't necessarily identify as either. We aimed to investigate gender expression among feminine identifying people who were assigned male at birth.

"They Had to Catch Me Like an Animal": Exploring Experiences of Involuntary Care for People with Psychosocial Conditions in South Africa.

Protecting the rights of people with psychosocial conditions is an important and controversial global aim, particularly in light of multiple calls for reduced coercion catalyzed by General Comment 1 of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which stipulates the replacement of substituted care with supported care. Responding to this and other global calls for reduced coercion is complex globally but can entail particular challenges in developing countries, where resource shortages and environmental barriers are sometimes a significant factor in how people with mental conditions experience involuntary care and encounter limitations to their autonomy. To better understand these complexities, our study explored experiences of involuntary care among people with psychosocial conditions in South Africa.

Uncovering multi-level mental healthcare barriers for migrants: a qualitative analysis across China, Germany, Netherlands, Romania, and South Africa.

Background: Forced displacement is a significant issue globally, and it affected 112 million people in 2022. Many of these people have found refuge in low- and middle-income countries. Migrants and refugees face complex and specialized health challenges, particularly in the area of mental health.

A community service doctor's experiences of mental healthcare provision in rural Eastern Cape.

Background: Literature shows that in South Africa there are insufficient resources to meet mental healthcare needs. At general or district hospital level, the non-specialist doctor is often responsible for the holistic assessment and management of mental health service users. Such situations inevitably increase doctors' care load as they are required to treat across disciplines.

Evaluating workforce needs: an investigation of healthcare professionals' attitudes, beliefs and preparedness towards the management of Para athlete mental health at the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games.

Objectives: To examine healthcare professionals (HCPs) attitudes, beliefs and preparedness towards the management of Para athlete mental health during the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games.

Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted. National Paralympic Committee's HCPs (n=857) working at the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games were invited to respond to an anonymous online survey regarding the management of Para athlete mental health in their team.

A qualitative study of the perceived benefits of participating in a spinal cord rehabilitation intervention in a low-middle income country.

Purpose: Improving quality of life (QoL) is a major goal of rehabilitation following spinal cord injury (SCI). However, people with disabilities in resource constrained contexts have limited access to rehabilitation and poorer health outcomes, including QoL. There is a paucity of qualitative research on the experiences of persons with SCI involved in rehabilitation programmes in low-middle income countries.

Robotic locomotor training in a low-resource setting: a randomized pilot and feasibility trial.

Purpose: Activity-based Training (ABT) represents the current standard of neurological rehabilitation. Robotic Locomotor Training (RLT), an innovative technique, aims to enhance rehabilitation outcomes. This study aimed to conduct a randomized pilot and feasibility trial of a locomotor training program within South Africa.

Evaluating workforce well-being: an investigation of healthcare professionals' mental health and burnout symptoms at the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games.

Objective: To explore the prevalence of symptoms of mental health conditions and burnout of healthcare professionals (HCPs) working during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.

Methods: In this cross-sectional, observational study, HCPs working during the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games were asked to complete an online, anonymous survey, which included demographic questions and questions regarding mental health symptoms including depression (Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item depression scale) and anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item scale) as well as burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey: depersonalisation, emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment). Correlation coefficients (r) were calculated between demographic characteristics and mental health symptoms.

To queue or not to queue: Facility managers and mental health care users' experiences of integrated health care in a rural South African district.

Background: A key feature of South Africa's state health care strategy since 1994 has been the development and expansion of services towards integrated health care at primary health care level. Within the new system, emphasis has been on the integration of patients with mental health care needs with other patients where multiple health conditions and needs would be addressed simultaneously. As part of a larger study into mental health care in a predominantly rural district, we investigated the experiences of facility managers and mental health service users in rural clinics within the system of care.

Role of security guards in healthcare settings: a protocol for a systematic review.

Introduction: There is a paucity of literature on the comprehensive roles of security guards in healthcare, regardless of day-to-day observations of security guards playing an extensive role in this field. Thus, this review will systematically explore the roles of security guards in healthcare contexts to create a centred body of evidence.

Methods And Analysis: The study will systematically review existing quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed literature on security guards in institutional healthcare so as to understand their roles.

"It is in the Nature of Men": The Normalization of Non-Consensual Sex and Intimate Partner Violence Against Women with Acquired Physical Disabilities in South Africa.

This study employed a cross-sectional, qualitative individual interview methodology to explore South African women with physical disabilities' experiences of intimate partner and sexual violence, inclusive of non-consensual and coerced sexual intercourse. For the participants, disability was a factor that intersected with gender norms to create vulnerability to abuse, and that patriarchal ideologies constructing how women should perform their gendered roles in marriage or sexual partnerships, as well as disability stigma, exacerbated this vulnerability. It is important to develop understandings of the different risk factors for violence - at the individual level and in the context of dyadic relationships - to develop programming to better support women.

Therapeutic pluralism and the politics of disclosure: breast cancer patients' experiences in public healthcare.

Background: Despite the widespread utilisation of complementary and or alternative medicine (CAM) by breast cancer patients in low-and-middle-income countries, few disclose CAM use to their physicians.

Objective: This study examines disclosure CAM use among a small sample of women attending a breast cancer clinic in a public health hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Methods: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach was utilised in this study.

The Care Dependency Grant for children with disabilities in South Africa: perspectives from implementation officials.

For people with disabilities, appropriate social protection interventions can contribute to breaking the cyclical relationship between poverty and disability and may improve social inclusion. In South Africa, a national social assistance programme provides 'social grants' to individuals on the basis of poverty, age, or disability. These grants have been extensively studied but there has been little investigation into the Care Dependency Grant, designed to support the care of children with disabilities.

'Five minutes earlier, you were giving hope': Reflections from interviews with doctors conducting assessments for South Africa's childhood disability Care Dependency Grant.

In South Africa, medical doctors functionally decide whether a primary caregiver can access state-funded social assistance cash transfers ('social grants') for the care of their disabled child. In this paper, we unpack the subjective experiences of one group of doctors in the country's Western Cape province who are involved in conducting assessments for the care dependency grant, designed to support the cost of disabled children's specific needs. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with five paediatric doctors who practice at three Cape Town public sector hospitals and regularly conduct assessments for the care dependency grant.

HIV and gender identity expression among transfeminine women in the Western Cape, South Africa - a thematic analysis of data from the HPTN 071 (PopART) trial.

Introduction: Transfeminine women in South Africa have a high HIV risk due to structural, behavioural, and psychosocial factors. Transfeminine women and feminine identifying men who have sex with men (MSM) are often conflated or grouped with transgender or MSM categories in HIV service programming, although they don't necessarily identify as either. We aimed to investigate gender expression among feminine identifying people who were assigned male at birth.

Differences in white matter microstructure in first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders vs healthy volunteers and their association with cognition.

Objective: Both cognitive impairment and alterations in white matter tissue microstructure are well recognised in schizophrenia. We investigated whether differences in white matter microstructure underpin cognitive impairments in patients with first-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders when controlling for multiple confounding factors.

Methods: We employed a cross-sectional study design and compared fractional anisotropy (FA) between individuals diagnosed with first- episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders (FES) (n = 68) and matched healthy controls (n = 120).

Challenges and opportunities of centring the African voice in disability research.

In 2020, the African Network of Evidence to Action on Disability (also known as AFRINEAD) hosted its 10th conference in Cape Town. This paper synthesises inputs by the three authors as plenary addresses, particularly focusing on the challenges and opportunities of centring African voices in disability research. Our concern in this article is to engage with the question of exclusion as an issue not just in the everyday lives of people with disabilities but also in the world of ideas - the ideational space.

Experiences of Organisations of (or That Serve) Persons with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic and National Lockdown Period in South Africa.

Organisations have long played an effective role in advocating for and actioning crucial developmental and humanitarian functions around the world, often under challenging conditions, as well as servicing the health needs of persons with disabilities. This article reports on the experiences of organisations of (or that serve) persons with disabilities, hereafter called service providers, during the COVID-19 lockdown period in South Africa beginning 26 March 2020. Organisations participated in an online survey as well as virtual narrative interviews to voice out their experiences.

Crip the elders and get out of white privilege free.

The question of identity positioning in relation to engagement with issues of social exclusion is complex. I am a white non-disabled South African man working on disability and care issues. I reflect on my representation of my parents, through memoirs and of Elsa Joubert, a doyenne of African writing.