Social Responsiveness in the Department of Psychiatry
Social responsiveness (SR) is one of the Performance Review/Appraisal ‘pillars’ at UCT. Until 2016, there was no social responsiveness portfolio. The Departmental 10-year review acknowledged this gap in the Department. In 2017, we saw the formation of the Departmental Social Responsiveness Committee (DSRC). The committee meets quarterly and started out by looking at SR definitions, categorizing SR, how to implement an SR lens to pre-existing academic and communication activities in the department.
The UCT Conceptual Framework for Social Responsiveness describes SR in the following way: “We are committed to engaged, policy-relevant research and teaching, as well as to expanding opportunities for students to become directly involved in socially responsive learning. Our aim is to ensure that our research contributes to the public good through sharing knowledge for the benefit of society and through fostering in our students the acquisition of the civic literacy, knowledge and skills necessary to build a more just, equitable and unified South African society.
For more on Social responsiveness at UCT click here.
Social Responsiveness Logo
Many departmental staff members are already actively engaged in work that is intended to ‘build a more just, equitable and unified South African society’. To draw attention to this work the committee decided to design a logo that can be displayed at events, meetings and activities, and be used as a symbol of social responsiveness in the department.
The design of the logo starts in the center, with individuals with mental health problems and their families, radiates out in four colours symbolizing the four groups of stakeholders that we collaborate with (public, NPO sector, professionals, and government), and ends in the overall shape of a Protea, to indicate the South African and African focus of our work.