The gendered context of women charged with violent offences in the forensic psychiatric setting.

Background: Women charged with violent offences may be referred by courts for forensic psychiatric assessment to determine whether mental disorder or intellectual disability impacts their fitness to stand trial and/or criminal responsibility. The profile of these women is a poorly researched area in South Africa.

Aim: This study examined the socio-demographic, offence-related, and clinical profile of South African women charged with violent offences referred for forensic assessment.

Prior trauma experiences among state patients charged with murder: A retrospective records review.

Background: Trauma experiences, particularly in childhood, have been associated with criminality and mental illness. There is a paucity of research into the crime of murder, trauma and mental illness.

Aim: This research study focused on state patients charged with murder and sought to determine associations with prior trauma experiences, and specific types of traumas (sexual, physical and emotional).

Adverse childhood experiences, mental illness, HIV and offending among female inmates in Durban, South Africa.

Background: Childhood adversities and adult trauma are common among female inmates. Associations have been documented with childhood adversities and mental illness, personality disorders, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and violent offending. However, no such study had been conducted in South Africa (SA), despite the high prevalence of HIV and trauma in SA.

Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa.

Within the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic and new challenges to a resource-constrained public healthcare system, many healthcare workers in South Africa have faced numerous stressors that have compromised their mental health. While the current literature on COVID-19 in South Africa highlights the widespread psychosocial stress experienced by healthcare workers during the pandemic, little is known about the coping strategies utilized to continue service delivery and maintain one's mental health and well-being during this ongoing public health emergency. In this study, we sought to explore the coping strategies used by healthcare workers employed in the public psychiatric care system in southern Gauteng, South Africa during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

South Africa's Psychiatric training capacity in 2008 and in 2018. Has training capacity improved?

Background: There is a deficit of psychiatrists in South Africa, and to our knowledge, there is no situational analysis of training posts for psychiatrists in the country.

Aim: To compare the number of specialists and subspecialists in training and training posts available in 2008 and 2018.

Setting: South African medical schools with departments of psychiatry.