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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
supporting capacity development around PhD proposal
development. SANTRUST (legal entity of SANPAD) is
funded by Irish Aid and the NRF with the aim of building
enhanced doctoral throughput capacity for the Nursing
Sciences. Two parallel workshops were held for supervisors
at each end of the course and these were attended by
Sinegugu Duma and Pat Mayers.
Jennifer Jelsma received funding from the EuroQoL
Foundation as well as from the NRF. Theresa Lorenzo
received funding from the NRF Community Engagement
Strategy Fund for the Disabled Youth Enabling Sustainable
Livelihoods (DYESL) study, which investigates the strategies
of disabled youth in sustaining their livelihoods. TheDivision
of Disability Studies collaborated with Occupational
Therapy departments of five universities in South Africa
for this study. She also received funding from the URC
Programme for Enhanced Research Capacity for a study
that explores the capacity of community disability workers
to address the needs of disabled youth. This study is
being conducted in rural areas of Botswana, Malawi and
Mpumalanga, South Africa. The study on the housing and
support options for adults with intellectual disability in the
Western Cape was completed as part of the postdoctoral
research project by Judy Mckenzie. Theresa Lorenzo was
awarded funding from the Vice Chancellor’s Strategic
Fund to investigate disability inclusion in the curriculum
of faculties at UCT. Jennifer Jelsma was awarded a travel
grant from the Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fund to be used
for developing teaching and learning at Kigali Institute in
Rwanda.
Elewani Ramugondo was awarded funding from the
Vice Chancellor’s Strategic Fund for Internalisation with
an Afropolitan Niche to establish occupational therapy
training in African countries, including Lesotho, Malawi,
Namibia and Botswana. Sinegugu Duma is participating
in the PLUME project. This is an initiative of FUNDISA (the
Forum for University Nursing Deans in South Africa) and
is funded by the NRF to develop lead researchers in all
member universities.
The Department raised its international research profile
in 2012. Staff members from the Division of Occupational
Therapy presented work at the Occupational Therapy
Association of South Africa Congress in Durban, as well
as Towards Carnegie 3: Reducing Poverty and Inequality
Conference in Cape Town. Madie Duncan participated
in a panel presentation at a conference on South African
Netherlands Academic Partnerships at the Institute
of Social Studies (Erasmus University) in The Hague,
Netherlands. Romy Parker won the prize for best poster
for clinical research at the Pain, Mind and Movement IV
pre-congress symposium of the World Congress on Pain.
Trish Lang (master’s student) was awarded second prize for
a free paper presentation at the Pain SA Congress on EMG
activity in chronic neck pain.
Undergraduate student research was also well-
represented. Occupational therapy students were were
awarded the Marie & Vona du Toit prize for best student
project in South Africa for a study on the perceptions of
disability of people living in informal settlements in the
Saldanha Bay sub-district, South Africa. Undergraduate
physiotherapy students also won first and second prize for
their presentations the Regional Inter-varsity Physiotherapy
Research Forum; and second prize for a poster at the
Faculty of Health Sciences Undergraduate Research Day.
There were numerous collaborative research activities
and scholarly visits in 2012. Roshan Galvaan initiated a
project of international cooperation entitled Occupational
Therapy Education for Social Transformation (OTEST):
a pilot co-operative inquiry. This project was funded in
2010/2011 by Higher Education South Africa together with
the National Research Foundation of South Africa under
the auspices of the Academic committee of the India-
Brazil-South Africa trilateral Forum (IBSA, 2012). Madie
Duncan served as one of 400 people internationally in the
UN Grand Challenges for Global Mental Health in 2011
(published in 2012) adding an occupational perspective
to this internationally significant policy initiative. Sinegugu
Duma presented a workshop on sexual assault forensic
nurses for UNEDSA project, based on a study of clinical
competencies for forensic nurses. Doris Khalil conducted
a study on violence in nursing at the Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science & Technology. Pat Mayers continues
to be involved in the UCT Knowledge Translation Unit
on-going Practical Approach to Lung Health and HIV
(PALSA Plus) project on an ad hoc basis. Jennifer Jelsma
continues to serve as a member of the WHO Functioning
and Disability Group and as a member of the EuroQoL
Quality of Life Group. Romy Parker is the secretary of the
International Pain and Movement Special Interest Group.
The Department continues to contribute to the
development of the professions. Shajila Singh is the Chair of
the Professional Board for Speech, Language and Hearing
Professions, and is also Chair of the CPD Committee for
the Health Professions Council of South Africa. Sinegugu
Duma is Chair of the Accreditation Committee of the
South African Nursing Council. Sheila Clow has continued
to serve on the National Executive Committee of the
Society of Midwives of South Africa. Helen Buchanan is
president of the Occupational Therapy Association of
South Africa. Madie Duncan serves as an ad hoc consultant
to OTASA for drafting policy documents, which recently
included position statements on re-engineering of PHC,