Suntosh PillayKwaZulu-Natal Department of Health · eThekwini District Head Office
Suntosh Pillay
Masters of Social Science (M.Soc.Sc)
Clinical and Community Psychology research, action, and practice, with a focus on culture, race, sexuality and identity.
About
32
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Introduction
Clinical psychologist at Department of Health, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Interested in critical, community-oriented forms of psychopolitical practice and research.
Co-founder: KZN Mental Health Advocacy Group; Co-Director: SADAG KZN; Associate Editor: Psychology in Society (PINS); Mandela Rhodes Scholar; alumni, Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI); Council member - Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA); Hon. Clinical Fellow - Dept. of Psychiatry, University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Additional affiliations
Education
January 2020 - December 2023
Publications
Publications (32)
BACKGROUND:
Epistemic violence is enacted in medical curricula in mundane ways all the time, negatively impacting learners, teachers and patients. In this article, we address three forms of such violence: White supremacy, indigenous erasure and heteronormativity.
METHODS:
In this article, we examine the knowledge systems of medicine as a global p...
Using an autoethnographic approach, I reflect on and unpack my journey towards my doctoral research on queer South Africans of Indian descent. I demonstrate how my decision to become an insider-researcher forced me to confront personal resistances towards turning the academic gaze upon myself. Although my journey towards intersectional LGBTQ+ resea...
This is response to a letter written by The Women's Rights Network and the LGB Alliance to our Viewpoint, "Queering global health".
Objective: South Africa and the United States face complex histories of antiblack policing, invigorated by increased state control during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This article explores the murders of Collins Khosa in South Africa and George Floyd in the U.S., to theorize the comparative differences in global attention given to b...
Despite a substantial body of research on Indian sub-culture in South Africa, few studies have explored its intersection with sexual and gender diversity. Similarly, despite growing research on the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in South Africa, there are few studies exploring its intersection with local Indian sub-groups....
The Covid-19 pandemic lockdown regulations caused retirement homes to temporarily ban in-person visitation potentially increasing the mental health risks of older people. An opportunity arose for a multistakeholder community collaboration to design a mental health program for older people. To evaluate the process of delivering a 12-week psychosocia...
This book covers diverse histories of student movements in post-apartheid South Africa, taking note of the historical moment of the 1976 student uprisings and the evolution of student activism since that seminal event.
The 17 chapters, written by academics, activists, students, and lecturers, aims to understand how student movements comprehend an...
This Viewpoint was submitted in response to the call for papers on the theme “What is wrong with global health?”. We answer the question simply: global health under-represents the experiences of LGBT+ people. Queer contexts are missing from the pages of this journal—a strange exclusion given the journal's commitment to diversity and inclusion of ma...
Inequities in access to psychosocial care are well documented and intersect with a range of sociopolitical determinants of health; in particular, poverty, unemployment, and stigma. ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’ was therefore an appropriate and urgent theme for World Mental Health Day 2020, as an opportunity to trouble the status quo. Shekhar...
Eban, a culturally tailored HIV risk reduction intervention for African American HIV-serodiscordant couples, has demonstrated efficacy and effectiveness in the USA, and holds promise for adaptation and implementation in other countries. In this study, Eban was adapted to suit the South African cultural context and then Eban South Africa was deliver...
This article summarizes the findings of a consultation process initiated at the 25th congress of the Psychological Society of South Africa in September 2019 to submit a response to the national public participation process on the National Health Insurance Bill, 2019. While the Psychological Society of South Africa supports the overall purpose of th...
Drawing on debates about the relationship between academia and activism, I turn attention to the medium of academic, peer-reviewed publications, and its relationship to (social) media activism. In this deliberately ironic and self-reflexive critique, I wonder aloud whether our current academic responses (if any) are rapid and meaningful enough to a...
Stigma is an important social determinant of health-seeking behavior; however, the nature and extent of its association with depression among people living with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are not well-understood. We enrolled 200 microbiologically confirmed MDR-TB inpatients at a TB specialist hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province, an ar...
This article constructs a brief history of how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) issues have intersected with South African psychology at key sociopolitical moments, filling a gap in current histories. Organized psychology-a primary focus of this analysis-since its first formations in 1948, mostly colluded with apartheid gove...
In this article, we outline the practice guidelines for psychology professionals working with sexually and gender-diverse people, ratified by the Psychological Society of South Africa’s Council in 2017. The guidelines are an augmentation of the Psychological Society of South Africa’s position statement of 2013 providing a framework for understandin...
This article is the product of many conversations, debates and reflections amongst three colleagues, as we contemplated our careers as clinical psychologists in the public service in South Africa. Having trained at roughly five year intervals since 1995, our paths intersected in 2013 when we found ourselves working together in a public hospital in...
This round table debate was hosted by the Equity and Transformation Standing Committee of PsySSA.
The general theme of equity and transformation is unpacked, to open debate on how psychology practitioners view these concepts. Preliminary data was presented from an ongoing research project that is exploring ways of conceptualising equity and transfo...
Africa is a diverse continent and unity is a complex challenge, both theoretically and practically. What is it that
unifies psychology and gives it a common identity so that it remains coherent in spite of the competing forces of
postcolonialism, globalisation, Africanization, decolonization, and capitalism? This presentation proposes a
framework t...
Tuberculosis and HIV are major contributors to the burden of disease in South Africa. Both diseases also have a reportedly high level of stigma. MDR-TB is a more serious type of TB and to date, there are few studies that investigate potential social psychological implications associated with these complications Specifically little is known about st...
It is with a strange, perhaps awkward, ambivalence that I write this editorial. On the one hand, I am eager to put thoughts to paper to enhance a social justice orientation and critical psychological lens in how we approach our work. On the other hand, the term “decolonization” is both an evocative and provocative term that leads us into murky wate...
Research shows that there is a highly significant relationship between traumatic childhood
experiences and the development of chronic medical illnesses, psychological conditions, and social
dysfunctions, which persists into adulthood. This relationship indicates the impact that trauma can
have on the individual, both on an intrapersonal and on an i...
This chapter uses eight case studies to discuss ethical decision-making in psychotherapy and counselling practice. The 5-C model is proposed as an efficient, step-by-step approach for resolving ethical problems in busy everyday practice settings: Clarify, Consider, Consult, Create, and Commit. The case studies relate to issues of confidentiality, b...
This chapter provides an overview of the history, theory and practice of supportive psychotherapy is written for practical application. Supportive psychotherapy actively builds a positive relationship with clients in order to maintain, restore or improve self-esteem, ego functions, and adaptive skills. Although traditionally used as a long-term the...
Humans are a social species forming groups with the power to foster learning, communication and healing. This chapter begins with looking at the history of group therapy internationally and in South Africa. Types of group interventions are described before moving onto the practical aspects of group work. The steps in creating groups are presented,...
What role has critical psychology played in the student protests that hit South African universities in 2015 and 2016? This editorial argues that psychologists cannot remain silent or take a position of false neutrality. If they do, they risk finding themselves on the wrong side of history again. Critical psychology, in particular, needs to transla...
This chapter is a brief introduction to the broad fields of critical and cultural psychology, focusing on African
and Eastern psychologies. African psychology refers to an international and pan-African movement that unpacks the experiences of black people, taking into account how historical injustices such as slavery and racism have impacted on the...
The stigma of being white in post-apartheid South Africa is a complex challenge. In 2008 the town of Swartruggens was discredited in the media following a shooting of black shack dwellers by a white Afrikaans boy, igniting racial tensions and creating a media narrative of 'victimised blacks' and 'violent whites'. This paper discusses part of a broa...
This chapter explores identity construction in a problematised place, specifically ‘the racist small town’. Forty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted in English, Afrikaans and Setswana over a two-week period during the imfamous Johan Nel’s final court trial in South Africa, which took place almost a year after he went on a shooting spree...
When a young white man from the small town of Swartruggens chose the informal settlement of Skierlik to go on a killing spree, this was labelled racist by the media. Only black people lived in Skierlik, and small towns in the North West province had a reputation for being racially divided. This study examined the impact of this event on residents’...