Wits Mental Health

Description of project:

The Witwatersrand Mental Health Society has been providing services for more than 81 years. A growing trend in education is to include children with special needs in mainstream schools as opposed to segregating them into special schools. As many teachers and early childcare development (ECD) workers are reluctant to have children with mental illnesses or handicaps in their classes, Witwatersrand Mental Health Society offers training to ECD workers and teachers to equip them with skills needed to accommodate and adapt to having these special needs children in mainstream schools.

The Shuttleworth Foundation?s involvement:

The Shuttleworth Foundation funded the cost of training 10 ECD workers/teachers. This included a three-day course with monthly follow-up sessions for 12 months.

Aims and objectives:

? To enable ECD workers to become more effective facilitators for children with a variety of special needs.
? To contribute to the optimal cognitive, educational and emotional development of children with varying needs.
? To facilitate the process of inclusion through effective teacher development in order to cope with the difficulties inherent in this process.
? To facilitate the development of environmental circumstances conducive to inclusion of children with special needs in a society as a whole by creating the framework for acceptance and understanding.

Evaluation:

During the training, the only challenge was time management. There was mutual respect, unity and co-operation among participants and this boosted the team spirit. The training was mutually beneficial, as it provided the learning environment for both participants and facilitators.

The participants were asked to complete evaluation forms. The below evaluation report is presented according to the following key points: training, facilitation, exercises, manual and expectations.

Summary of participants evaluation:

(a) Training: The participants found the training to be interesting and helpful. They reported that they feel empowered and that they could implement what they have learnt from the training.

(b) Facilitation: The participants found the facilitation approach interesting. This was because they were given time to express themselves and even shared personal experiences from which everyone benefited. They were also given the chance to speak in any language of their choice. They reported that the facilitators were well prepared and also highlighted the importance of the good relationship and the respect they received from the facilitators.

(c) Exercises: According to the participants, exercises helped them to reflect on issues they used to take for granted. For example the rights exercise induced a sense of empathy towards children with special needs. They felt these exercises put them in a practical context even though it was in a simulation, thus enabling them to understand things better.

(d) The Manual: With the exception of one person, the participants reported that the manual was easy to follow and well structured. The one who could not follow it easily was helped through interpreting due to the fact that she did not understand English well.

(e) Expectations: The evaluation shows that the participants' expectations were met. They reported that they could now understand special needs and how to work with children with special needs.

Although the participants did benefit from the training, what Witwatersrand Mental Health needs to focus on is to guide and support the participants with implementation of what they have learned. In addition, they also need to work with parents in the participants? centres to create awareness about inclusion, with the aim of encouraging them to be more accepting and understanding of children with special needs.

The focus of the follow-up sessions is on providing guidance and support for participants. Overall, the follow-up sessions did not run as smoothly as the training as a result of the relocation of the Thembelihle community to Flakfontein, which has resulted in the participants moving to different areas. The facilitator has tried to overcome this by including site visits to both areas, although the sessions are still not attended by all participants. The facilitator is continuing to encourage them to attend as this is a forum for them to express their challenges and encouraging experiences. Follow-up session questionnaires are also given to the representatives to distribute to the other participants. The aim of the questionnaires is to establish what the issues are that they would like to discuss during sessions, besides the implementation process. These will be returned before the date of the next follow-up session.

The timeline for the project was pushed out as a result of unrest and then the relocation, so only three follow-up sessions have been completed and nine are still to take place.