Nurture pyschological health

The Itsoseng Clinic offers donors a niche opportunity to promote psychological health in the Mamelodi community. The Clinic functions both as a community project and an academic service learning environment for the Department of Psychology. Approximately 22 UP student volunteers are annually gaining practical counselling experience while rendering an essential community service.

The student volunteers hosted an open day on 6 April 2011 where they showcased a range of free counselling services for people of all ages. These services include:

·         trauma counselling

·         psychometric testing and educational assessment

·         psycho education

·         career guidance

·        counselling for psychologically related issues such as depression, addiction, stress, attention problems, etc.

Itsoseng Clinic Open Day

During the open day, the students shared their patient experiences.  Most of the stories were about children who were marginalised from the education system because of unidentified learning difficulties. One student spoke about a ten year old boy who was labelled as a ”difficult child” and was placed in a special school because neither his parents nor the teachers could identify dyslexia.

The Clinic is housed within the community on the Mamelodi campus. Medical clinics and schools refer patients on a regular basis because of its close proximity. Itsoseng Clinic is the only clinic in Mamelodi that offers comprehensive psychological services, unlike the medical clinics that offer limited services such as HIV/AIDS counselling.

The clinic recently introduced music and art therapy as a means to help younger patients overcome language barriers. You can support the Itsoseng Clinic by making a donation which will be used to purchase toys, musical instruments and art supplies for the group therapy sessions. To make a donation you may contact Ninette Mouton at [email protected] or 012 420 5528.