July marked Mental Health Awareness Month, with August being observed as National Wellness Month. The DBE, in collaboration with the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), is hosting a series of three webinars to raise awareness on mental health to assist learners, teachers, parents and the sector community.
Ms Sibongile Monareng, Director for Psychosocial Support Services at the DBE said that, “the webinars are part of the umbrella of the Advocacy, Communication and Social Mobilisation (ACSM) strategy for the basic education sector to promote mental wellness and information. She encouraged partners who work in schools to conduct mental health awareness workshops and information sharing sessions: School Management Teams (SMTs), School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and Representative Council of Learners (RCL) structures, Learning Support Agents (LSAs) and Care and Support Assistants (CSAs) to help the sector achieve its goal of using schools as vehicles for access to care for learners and educators. She added that awareness campaigns not only provide information on mental health for individuals, but have the potential of making our schools, homes and communities safe environments as when individuals have information, they are more likely to support those that may suffer from mental health struggles.
Speakers included Roshni Parbhoo-Seetha, Projects Manager at SADAG and Ms Matlaleng Lithebe, Psychosocial Support Programme Manager at Wits RHI.
Ms Parbhoo-Seetha indicated that SADAG received 3,000 calls daily. She gave an overview of the Schools Outreach Programme, stating that suicide should not be a secret. She explained the difference in respect of mental health versus mental illness and encouraged the use of positive language use when referring to mental illness, along with a suicide language guide. In addition, she presented mental health on a spectrum ranging from healthy to crisis stage, whilst unpacking depression and anxiety, along with coping and mental check-in strategies, concluding that open lines of communication with children and adolescents are essential to create a safe space for discussion and indirect listening to “hear” what they say.
Ms Lithebe delivered a presentation on how HIV impacts on learners, stating that approximately 270,000 children aged 0 to 14 years old are living with HIV in South Africa due to mostly mother to child transmission, impacting on neurocognitive issues such as memory, concentration, motor skills, and resulting in developmental delays. This impacts on the child’s learning due to stigma, leading to isolation and mental health issues. The role of educators is to create enabling and stigma-free inclusive environments. Low hanging fruits include organising peer support groups, inviting guest speakers and working closely with school healthcare services. In addition, the role of LEAs and CSAs cannot be understated.
The next webinar on 13 August 2025, will be focusing on the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) training of educators. The first speaker will highlight SEL in the Foundation Phase, whilst the second speaker will present preliminary findings of a pilot the DBE conducted in seven provinces training educators in SEL in 2024. The last instalment of the webinar series on 20 August 2025, will be on strategies for creating safe classrooms, as well as how the Mpumalanga Education Department’s Psychosocial Support Programme is providing support to learners in their province, focusing on system strengthening, working with SBSTs and LSAs. In summary, Ms Monareng said that, “the DBE is committed to schools being used as vehicles for care and support; as part of the Psychosocial Support Programme, we have a clear mandate to ensure the mental, emotional and social welfare, not only of our learners, but also for educators to create psychosocial-friendly and supporting classrooms”.
The first webinar was well attended, with approximately 170 online delegates participating in the robust discussions.