Xandria Louw
Counselling Psychologist in Private Practice, South Africa
Title: Fairytale Facts – On uplifting communities creatively by raising mental health awareness and providing support.
Biography
Biography: Xandria Louw
Abstract
This presentation reports on the work of the Goldilocks and The Bear Foundation as the first initiative in South Africa to offer non-profit ADHD screening and early intervention in underprivileged communities. The Foundation was founded by psychiatrist Renata Schoeman (Goldilocks) and entrepreneur/athlete Nic de Beer (The Bear) and aims to remove mental health barriers to education through screening, early referral, diagnosis and treatment – thereby improving the quality of life of the children they serve. Although mental health clinics exist in the public sector, children with ADHD often never reach this point of diagnosis and treatment due to a lack of awareness and knowledge in their communities. They are never screened for ADHD, and may be labelled as naughty, or “stupid”, or just silently fall out of the educational system and only come to our attention when absorbed in the criminal justice system. These children never have the opportunity to flourish. The Foundation focuses on raising awareness of ADHD, increasing the knowledge of and providing training to parents, teachers, and healthcare workers, providing screening and early identification of children with ADHD at schools, referring them for timely intervention and treatment, and capturing statistics on the prevalence and management of ADHD in South African children. Their model is one that can successfully be implemented in underresourced communities – through collaboration with volunteer healthcare professionals, as well as public sector stakeholders.