In 2022 we wrote about our work with Clinical Social Worker, Mirriam Mkhize and the Alan J. Flisher Center for Public Mental Health at UCT (Community-Keepers-Impact-Report-2022.pdf – pg 53-56).

Mirriam’s PhD focused on adapting and testing a World Health Organization intervention, the Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE), for young adolescents and their caregivers. Once she had published her work, we were fortunate to be in the first cohort trained to implement.

The groups at two of our schools are about to graduate.

Why it matters here

Learners are growing up inside a severe crisis of gender-based violence, gang violence, and destructive patriarchal norms – conditions that socialise young people into aggression and leave all learners carrying trauma. The result shows up in our schools every day as anxiety, depression, and disruptive behaviour, which the South African Medical Research Council confirms to be the most prevalent mental health challenges among young people in South Africa.

Through our research partnership with UCT on the EASE-SA adaptation, data gathered from over 600 learners aged 10–14 tragically backs this up: a third of learners reported high symptoms of depression, a fifth reported high anxiety symptoms, 80% had experienced bullying, and 80% had been witnesses to physical domestic violence in their home.

Why EASE?

EASE-SA (Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions) is a WHO-developed, UCT-adapted programme for young people aged 10-14, tested in clinical trials across four low- and middle-income countries. Learners attend seven sessions and their caregivers join in for another three sessions to build emotional regulation and coping skills.

By inviting their parents/caregivers to join in and by giving the learners the opportunity to design and lead awareness programs in their school, we’re working upstream of the crisis – treating the trauma that feeds it and restoring family communication.

We’re proud to have helped adapt this evidence-based programme for South African schools, and even prouder to now be piloting it on the ground.

Have you been running EASE or EASE-SA in your school? – we’d love to hear your experience!