Anolene Thangavelu Pillay, psychology enthusiast and UKZN post-studies graduate, brings innovative behavioral science insights to everyday mental health.
WHAT if the biggest barrier to mental health recovery in South Africa has never been a shortage of compassion but rather a shortage of shared language?
Picture a Tuesday morning queue outside an eThekwini community clinic: a woman rehearsing her pain in English before she even reaches the front desk because the intake form is written in a language that may not fully reflect how she understands or describes her experience.
Anxiety, depression, trauma, gender-based violence and grief that never gets named properly — all of it arrives carrying the same unspoken question, asked in a hundred different ways: Will I be understood here, or merely processed?
It is a seismic mistake to answer that question by singling out our healthcare professionals.
