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August 9, 2024 by admin | No Comments

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Join PATHSA today and be part of a dynamic community of healthcare professionals dedicated to advancing affirming care for trans and gender-diverse people. As a member, you’ll gain access to exclusive resources, support networks, and the opportunity to earn CPD points by attending our monthly meetings.

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PATHSA is a registered interdisciplinary health professional public benefit organisation.
PATHSA is inviting abstract submissions for our 20 PATHSA is inviting abstract submissions for our 2026 Virtual Symposium, The Current State of Gender-Affirming Care in South Africa, taking place on Saturday, 21 November 2026. We welcome 300-word abstracts across a range of presentation formats: Oral presentations (15 min) • Traditional oral papers • Clinical case studies • Policy analyses • Literature reviews Poster presentations • Visual poster + 3-minute recorded presentation Alternative formats (15 min) • Human Books – personal narratives • Performance activities – creative presentations • Community Voices – lived experience Submission deadline: 1 October 2026 Notification of acceptance: 15 October 2026 Submit abstracts to secretary@pathsa.org.za. Full details and submission guidelines are available via the link in our bio.
Save the date! PATHSA’s 2026 Virtual Symposium wil Save the date! PATHSA’s 2026 Virtual Symposium will take place on Saturday, 21 November 2026, from 08:00–12:00. This year’s theme is The Current State of Gender-Affirming Care in South Africa. Registration is now open. The symposium will be CPD accredited, with general and ethics CPD points available, and attendance is free for PATHSA members. We’re also inviting abstract submissions for presentations at the symposium. Register and find full details of the Call for Abstracts via the link in our bio.
PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 25 August 2026 | 19:00–20:00 PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 25 August 2026 | 19:00–20:00 Traditional Health and Transgender Healthcare: Bridging Cultural Perspectives Speaker: Khanyisile Rosemary Mnyadi How might traditional understandings of gender and identity inform transgender healthcare in South Africa? This session explores the intersections between traditional health, ancestral understandings, gender diversity, and contemporary healthcare practice. Khanyisile Rosemary Mnyadi is a research psychologist whose work has included trauma counselling, research, and community-based fieldwork. Her research on the influence of ancestral spirits on sexual identity among traditional healers (iZangoma) in South Africa was published in Inkanyiso: Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. 🔒 Members only 🔗 Join via the PATHSA Mighty Network
PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 28 July 2026 | 19:00–20:00 PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 28 July 2026 | 19:00–20:00 The Ethics of Informed Consent in Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Youth with Dr Yoshna Kooverjee How do we navigate informed consent in gender-affirming care for children and adolescents? This session explores the ethical principles of autonomy, capacity, and shared decision-making, and their application in clinical practice. Dr Yoshna Kooverjee is a medical doctor, Senior Lecturer at Nelson Mandela University Medical School, and bioethicist with an MPhil in Applied Ethics. She is an experienced educator with a passion for making bioethics relevant to everyday healthcare. 🔒 Members only 🔗 Join via the PATHSA Mighty Network
PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 30 June 2026 | 19:00–20:00 PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 30 June 2026 | 19:00–20:00 Surgical Update Speaker: Dr Kevin Adams Join us for an update on developments in gender-affirming surgery from one of South Africa’s most experienced surgeons in the field. Dr Kevin Adams is a Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Senior Specialist at Groote Schuur and Red Cross Hospitals, and a founding member of the multidisciplinary Gender-Affirming Clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital. He has been involved in the provision and development of gender-affirming surgical care in South Africa since the clinic’s establishment in 2009. This session will provide an overview of current developments in gender-affirming surgery, with opportunities for clinicians to deepen their understanding of contemporary surgical care and multidisciplinary practice. 🔒 Members only 🔗 Access via Mighty Network (link in bio)
PATHSA CPD | Tues, 26 May | 7–8pm The Cost of Bei PATHSA CPD | Tues, 26 May | 7–8pm The Cost of Being Made to Wait: Trans Healthcare and Justice in South Africa - Recognition Delayed, Healthcare Denied In 2026, many trans South Africans are still forced to fight for healthcare, dignity, and legal recognition that should never have been delayed. This talk explores how discrimination, blocked access to services, and a shifting global activism landscape shape the everyday realities of trans and gender-diverse people. Waiting lists, gatekeeping, legal delays, and institutional barriers are not simply administrative challenges - they have direct consequences for health, safety, wellbeing, and survival. The session will examine the human cost of exclusion and the ongoing activism needed to secure equitable, affirming healthcare and justice in South Africa and beyond. Speaker: Lee-Anne Walker 🔒 Members only 🔗 Access link via PATHSA’s Mighty Network (link in bio)
PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 28 April | 19:00–20:00 Voic PATHSA CPD | Tuesday, 28 April | 19:00–20:00 Voice and Communication Therapy Across the Gender Spectrum Voice and communication are central to how people are recognised, understood, and affirmed in everyday interactions. This session will explore gender-affirming approaches to voice and communication therapy across diverse identities, with attention to clinical practice, embodiment, and the social contexts in which voice is heard and interpreted. Speaker: Saskia Lilienfeld (they/she) Saskia is a Cape Town-based Speech-Language Therapist and activist with a focus on person-centred, affirming care. A UCT graduate, they have worked in both South Africa and the UK, and previously led the Speech Therapy Department at Khayelitsha Hospital. In 2021, Saskia established a private practice focusing on gender-affirming and neurodiversity-affirming voice and communication therapy. They provide services nationally through online care. Alongside their clinical work, Saskia is active in advocacy for trans communities and affirming healthcare. Drawing on both professional expertise and lived experience as a non-binary person diagnosed with ADHD in adulthood, Saskia’s work creates space for clients to explore voice, identity, and communication in ways that align with their sense of self. 🔒 Members only 🔗 Access via Mighty (link in bio)
PATHSA CPD | 31 March 2026 | 19:00–20:00 This ses PATHSA CPD | 31 March 2026 | 19:00–20:00 This session will engage the role of human rights and intersectionality in shaping affirmative psychological practice. Speaker: Iva Žegura Iva Žegura is a clinical psychologist and PhD candidate with over 20 years of experience at the University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče in Zagreb. Her work spans gestalt integrative therapy, cybernetics of psychotherapy, and sexual therapy. She holds academic appointments across psychology and medical faculties and contributes to training and supervision. She has been instrumental in developing LGBTIQ+ affirmative practice and advancing legislative and healthcare frameworks for transgender and gender-diverse people in line with WPATH Standards of Care. She serves on the National List of Experts for the Health Care of Transgender People and is the current President of EPATH. She has authored and edited several scientific publications and books. 🔒 Members only 🔗 Access via Mighty (see link in bio)
PATHSA CPD | 24 February 2026 | 19:00–20:00 Anti- PATHSA CPD | 24 February 2026 | 19:00–20:00 Anti-Trans Narratives & Misinformation: A moderated panel discussion on impact and response in gender-affirming healthcare Anti-rights and anti-gender narratives are increasingly shaping the clinical landscape in South Africa. These coordinated misinformation strategies influence patient access to care, provider safety, institutional decision-making, and clinical confidence. This moderated panel discussion will examine how these dynamics are affecting the provision of gender-affirming healthcare across settings. The conversation will address: • How misinformation is circulating in South Africa • The impact on patients, families, schools, workplaces, and communities • Ethical duties, scope of practice, and informed consent as ongoing process • Practical strategies for team-based response and patient support Panel: Jenna-Lee de Beer-Procter Sakhile Msweli Moderator: Pierre Brouard 🔒 Members only 🔗 Access via Mighty Network
New publication out today! A group of South Afric New publication out today! A group of South African healthcare professionals and researchers working in gender-affirming care have published a response in the South African Journal of Psychiatry titled: “Locally relevant, ethically urgent: Defending SASOP’s stance on transgender and non-binary youth.” This article defends SASOP’s 2024 position statement on the care of transgender and non-binary young people, responding to recent critiques that rely on selective, ideologically driven sources from the Global North. The authors outline why South Africa’s approach must be grounded in local law, constitutional rights, ethical practice, and the realities of access to care. Importantly, the paper highlights what is often ignored in these debates: the real crisis is not “over-provision” of care, but the widespread lack of access to any gender-affirming healthcare at all - especially for economically marginalised and rural youth. 🔗 Read the full article: see link in bio.
Gender-Affirming Care: Clinical Decision-Making Un Gender-Affirming Care: Clinical Decision-Making Under Scrutiny 🗓 27 January 2026 ⏰ 7:00–8:00pm (SAST) 🔒 PATHSA members only 📍 Access via the Mighty Network This CPD session explores how clinical decision-making in gender-affirming care is being reshaped under increasing scrutiny, backlash, and uncertainty. Drawing on qualitative research with trans people and healthcare providers in South Africa, the talk examines how concepts like proof, capacity, readiness, and risk come to structure care - often in ways that quietly delay or constrain it. The session will focus on: - How scrutiny alters clinical judgement, even when no complaint or regulator is present - The difference between proportionate assessment and defensive over-justification - What it means to stay ethically and relationally grounded in contested conditions - Practical ways of holding uncertainty without stalling care This is a reflective, practice-focused session for clinicians navigating gender-affirming care in real-world settings. About the presenter Presented by Jenna-Lee de Beer-Procter (they/them), a clinical psychologist and Vice Chair of PATHSA. Jen has recently submitted their PhD dissertation examining gender-affirming care in South Africa under conditions of contestation, developing a theory of “staying in the work” - how care continues when authority, legitimacy, and decision-making are persistently under review.
🟣 KEYNOTE SPOTLIGHT We’re honoured to welcome Pont 🟣 KEYNOTE SPOTLIGHT We’re honoured to welcome Pontsho Pilane as keynote speaker at the PATHSA Symposium 2025. 📣 The Politics of Faith and the Right to Care: Confronting Evangelical Anti-Rights Movements in Trans Health Pontsho’s keynote will explore how evangelical organising shapes resistance to gender-affirming care and how health professionals, advocates, and communities can respond. Drawing on her expertise in health journalism and social justice, this talk will examine the intersections of religion, politics, and access to care in the South African context. 📅 Saturday, 29 November 🕗 8:00–12:00 🔗 Open to all | Register via the link in bio
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