Khayelitsha is, with 1.5 million inhabitants, the largest township in South Africa after Soweto. In the 1980s, all "legal" black people from existing townships were moved to a new township. Khayelitsha is a Xhosa word for "New Home"
Services
Individual and Family Counselling
All staff at Empilweni are trained councillors and are supervised by a clinical psychologist. Some cases require prior treatment before (eg. psychotic, domestic violence, substance abuse etc…) before Empilweni's intervention.
Schools, Service Organisations/Government Departments and the community refer school going children ages 4 to 18 for our service and we receive them as follows:
Screening
Each case is screened to check if it is an appropriate/inappropriate. Appropriate cases are assigned to councillors for intervention and inappropriate cases are referred to the relevant services. Telephone calls, referral letters and follow up is made to ensure that the inappropriate case received assistance required.
History taking
Appropriate cases move on for history taking, were every detail of the client from conception to date is capture. This includes all the role players in the child’s life from family, school, peers and the community. This information will assist in drawing up a councelling intervention for the child.
Case presentation
Each new case is presented in weekly session of case presentation in the presence of an external supervisor, who facilitates the process. All councillors participate in the plan of intervention for every case.
Individual and Family Counselling
A number of sessions (6 to 10) are booked with the client, usually on weekly basis. These sessions goes hand in hand with home visits, school visits, family councelling and thereafter a child is booked for group councelling(if they will benefit from it) that last up to 12 sessions.
We provide ongoing support to all our clients in the form of transportation to ensure that they attend and finish their sessions and calls are made in between sessions and after the termination of each case to assess stability and adjustment.
Termination
Each case is terminated and assessment is made in relation to the child’s function on intake and at termination and a treatment summary is completed
Data base
This is a tool that is used to capture our client caseload and it is also used to measure dangerous situations and diagnostic impressions surrounding each child.
Group councelling
Our councelling group sessions are designed to cater for all the needs of our clients. Children are divided in age groups and the aim of running these groups is to reinforce the individual councelling received and allow them to work through their individual problems with peers affected by similar problems.
There is also a parent support group that provide support and give skills to parents, so that they can independently provide ongoing support and motivation to their children.
Community outreach and capacity building
Khayelitsha and Mfuleni has a number of service organisation who require support and motivation and we have discovered that the Mental health training that we provide caters for that need. It serves as a form of debriefing and people understand themselves and their actions much better.
Advocacy and lobbying around mental health issues
We aim to engage our clients more in advocacy and lobbying for their rights
