Caring for our Carers – Join the CS4D initiative
It’s almost time!
Start the conversation about the mental health of the medical profession and medical students by wearing your colourful, mismatched socks on #CrazySocks4Docs Day on Friday, 7 June.
It is critical that we highlight mental health in the health professions – especially amongst the next generation of medical professionals – as the stigma surrounding mental illness in doctors persists. Wearing mismatched, brightly-coloured socks may seem like a weird place to begin, but to care for others, we have to first care for ourselves and each other! Wear your “crazy” mismatched pair of socks on 7 June to show your support! Medical campuses will shortly be receiving their pro rata number of socks to be collected by medical students on a first come first served basis thanks to a partnership between the Ithemba Foundation and sock manufac- turer Falke as well as pharmaceutical company Cipla.
Medical students will also stand a chance to win cash prizes of R1 000 sponsored by the Ithemba Foundation, a non-profit that has two public benefit goals: to educate the public around mental health, specifically depression and related diseases such as anxiety disorders, and to support research.
Ithemba has launched the CS4D day to help break the silence around mental health among the medical profes- sion. Falke has sponsored 10 000 pairs of socks to be distributed on a pro rata basis on our medical campuses. PLUS: on each campus the student with the most likes for her/his “sock selfie” will win R1 000 cash! You only need to post your “sock selfie” on Ithemba’s FB using #ithembafoundation/#CrazySocks4Docs/#CS4D hashtag on June 7. You will automatically be entered into the draw to win that lovely cash prize of R1 000 on your campus – so start inspiring Mom, Dad, uncles, aunts, cousins, friends, the whole caboodle, to remember to go to Ithemba’s FB page on 7 June and “like” your sock selfie so that YOU can win that R1 000 cash!
The purpose of CS4D Day is to create awareness about:
- the highly stressful nature of the medical profession;
- the need for doctors to seek help when needed, both mental and physical;
- the need for those in the health profession to support one another;
- the need to reshape the culture of the health industry, and,
- for your generation, to ensure you will have a new mindset concerning your own mental health.
Details of where and when you can collect your socks on a first come first served basis will follow shortly. And then wear your fun and funky socks on 7 June, post your sock selfies, and break the silence and the stigma!
