SA men-time for introspection/renewed action?

Well … ponder the findings and science behind a groundbreaking local study being piloted in the Western Cape, so highly rated that senior advisors to President Barack Obama and his deputy Joe Biden in the White House have discussed using the methodology to run a similar project in Washington DC. It's designed to engage primary care providers (nurses and doctors) in recognising patients living with intimate partner violence (IPV) and the value of intervening. Why is this so vital? Well, in South Africa, interpersonal violence is the second highest contributor to the burden of disease after HIV and AIDS. More to the point, in South Africa intimate partner violence accounts for 62.4% of all interpersonal violence in women. The unsurprising yet really frightening logical consequence is that our country's intimate femicide rate is the highest in the world (twice as common in rural South African settings compared with urban, where complex racial, gender and economic forces maintain women in abusive situations). National estimates are that a woman is killed every six hours by her intimate male partner, current, ex or would-be rejected lover. One in four women country-wide are in abusive relationships. 1 Focused surveys by reputable NGOs conducted in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg show that in 58.7% of domestic violence cases, the abuser is the partner, lover or spouse of the victim. That original claim no longer seems so far-fetched ... and, says the study author, 'real men, relatively integrated men, have a key role to play in healing the wounded masculine in our society through men's work and their own practices of equitable living. Medical doctors need to transform complacency into action, no longer accepting IPV as normative, but rather tackling it with the serious attention that the gravity of this mental and physical health problem deserves. ' The doctoral study is the seminal work of Stellenbosch University's Dr Kate Joyner, supervised jointly by campus colleagues, Professor of Family Medicine, Bob Mash (co-researcher) and social anthropologist, Professor Kees van der Waal. Joyner has a D Phil degree in social science research methods, Master's in Religious Studies (UCT) and nursing qualifications with specialisation in psychiatric nursing. She currently teaches mental health, including gender-based violence nursing at Stellenbosch University's Tygerberg campus – when she is not in the field teaching provincial health staff to recognise and treat IPV. Her personal 'tipping point' came when Western Cape health director, Professor …