Page 55 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Christian Psychology as a Challenge

formation and narrow definitions. Action lear- sex work. This pose a challenge to the mental
ners are therefore advised to observe by diffe- health services of South Africa that could be
rent means – personal experience, dialogue and best addressed by community psychological
face-to-face discussion, and using both qualita- practice and interventions designed to provide
tive and quantitative methods. input to a whole community.

Focusing on communities instead of the indi- Racial structures shaped by the apartheids re-
vidual drives active participatory engagement gime created a divide between racial groups in
with communities in order to gage their needs, the past. Despite numerous efforts and a lot of
dynamics and hierarchies. Active engagement progress regarding breaking down historically
and action research form the first step for psy- shaped racial structures, the effects of a raciali-
chologists embarking on the path of becoming zed society are not totally eradicated. These ef-
community psychologists. fects contribute to the challenge to make mental
health services equally accessible to all South
The benefits from this approach for mental Africans and again the practice of Community
health professionals are numerous, ranging from Psychology provides a workable solution.
gaining a deeper understanding of community
dynamics and how it affects individual beha- Sex work is often the only way women can find
viour to empowering communities and prevent food or shelter or migrants could travel from
pathology. This, in turn leads to reaching more other African countries to South Africa. This
people with psychological knowledge and ser- desperate measure leads to the spread of HIV/
vices and psycho-educational interventions ai- Aids, now a pandemic in South Africa. The
ming at prevention rather than cure. It further consequence of this pandemic is a loss of adults
implies the expansion of the mental health mo- in all roles of society, including parents and tea-
del to counter the individual psychopathology chers. One of the far-reaching consequences of
paradigm, encompass systemic understanding this is child-headed households and a potential
of risks and mental health threats and develop crisis regarding a lack of teachers in a few years
a social justice and social action framework to time. Violence, on the other hand is a direct
address specific contextual issues. action against another person or property to
bring harm. Although different communities
Some pertinent contextual issues that pertain to might interpret violence differently, it still poses
South Africa were identified, inter alia pover- a huge mental health crises as the vast majority
ty, unemployment, gender inequalities, histori- of South African are subjected to some or other
cally shaped racial structures and lack of basic traumatic experience. Only by addressing these
education and life skills. Poverty implies that issues collectively could a solution be found.
a large number of people are exposed to signi-
ficantly inferior circumstances suffering from Based on the above it seems that Community
the consequences of NOT getting their primal Psychology provides a potential effective ap-
physiological needs met. According to Maslow’s proach to address the needs of underprivileged
theory this has a ripple effect, meaning that this and marginalised communities, as the central
would probably result in low self-esteem, the focus is social justice, social action and the
overall experience of insecurity (emotional and wellbeing of all people.
physical) and low self-actualisation.
Christian Community Psychology
Poverty results in a lack of access to proper The Institute of Christian Psychology (ICP)
nutrition, education and health care services. faced the challenge to develop Christian Com-
It further leads to the development of social munity Psychology when it was phased in as a
and mental health problems, such as a lack of 4th year subject of the Bachelor of Psychology
education and life skills, substance abuse, theft (B Psych) degree in 2007. In order to develop
and other criminal activities, violence and this perspective a three pronged approach was

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