From 2020 to 2022, South Africa and eThekwini in KwaZulu-Natal specifically, experienced multiple shocks that caused irreparable damage to the city’s economy. The Covid-19 pandemic, the social unrest (commonly called ‘looting’) of July 2021 and the high-energy floods of April 2022 were all declared a national state of disaster by the country’s president and lockdowns introduced to contain these disasters had consequences for education, employment, housing, access to healthcare and food security, all of which are known to be critical social determinants of health (SDOH), including of mental health. While the economic impact of these shocks is well documented, less is known about the effects of these shocks on young people’s mental health. This study focused on the changes in SDOH on young adults (YA) and Caregiver mental health because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the social unrest and flood event of April 2022, by asking about the factors impacting the variation in determinants of mental health challenges that young people (and their Caregivers) experience. A series of qualitative activities including in-depth individual interviews, a photovoice activity and focus group discussions were deployed to investigate this issue. Theories of intersectionality and navigational capacities were used to undergird these findings and explain the ways in which both social identities and social connections mediate experiences by either enabling or inhibiting access to services, resources and support in moments of disaster. To that end, a timelining activity during interviews incorporated typologies to operationalize the six navigational capacities, and an identity ranking exercise featuring ten social identity categories, was used.
Human Sciences Research Council (Wed,) studied this question.