‘He doesn’t understand that he’s struggling with the way I felt’ – university students, psychosocial disability and disclosure in the Western Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Despite there being much research on students with more visible disabilities, this is not the case with students with invisible disabilities such as psychosocial disabilities – especially in university postgraduate settings. Students with psychosocial disabilities have the decision to disclose their status to their research supervisors and this has implications on their relationship. This was a qualitative study interviewing 15 postgraduate students, from two universities in the Western Cape, South Africa, with diagnosed psychological disabilities and who are being supervised by university staff members. Issues of disclosure about their psychosocial disabilities were explored. Nine out of the 15 (60%) respondents disclosed their disability to their supervisor. Discussion of the responses of participants in terms of reasons for not disclosing, positive consequences of disclosing and negative consequences of disclosing are explored. It is argued that this complex issue needs to be addressed on three levels: individual, staff and university levels.

Points of interest

• The decision to disclose a mental illness is complex in that there are positive and negative consequences to disclosure depending on the context

• Disclosure issues need to be addressed on three levels - individual, staff and university.

• On the individual level it needs to be clear that individuals have a choice to disclose or not and that a one-size-fits all approach in disclosure is not applicable.

• On the staff level it is encouraged that coping skills of supervisors be developed while on the university level it is believed a cultural change to disability needs to be addressed.

• These research findings can begin to inform policy and initiate practical change in the supervision process of students with psychosocial disabilities

Keywords:

• disclosure
• psychosocial
• disability
• university postgraduate

Notes

1 Pseudonyms were used to ensure anonymity