There is a growing realisation that traditional approaches to bullying – both thinking about bullying (theoretical formulation and understanding) and intervening – are failing.
South Africa has one of the highest rates of interpersonal violence in the world, despite ‘state of the art legislation’ that aims to protect human rights.
Bullying in our our schools has increased exponentially in the last few years. It could be argued that there are in fact 3 pandemics in South Africa:

• Covid-19
• Gender Based Violence
• Bullying and Interpersonal Violence (BIV)

There are competing views about bullying, and dispute as to whether the judicial system should address bullying between people under the age of 18 or not. Regardless, it is recognised that a revised approach is needed. There are many anti-bullying tool-kits available – however they are only as good as their implementation. The same applies to school Codes of Conduct.

In view of the above this presentation has the following goals:

• To update viewers about the most current research and thinking on bullying 2018 – 2021.
• To provide participants with a robust working model which will assist in identifying bullying regardless of their setting.
• To equip participants with the necessary knowledge and skills in order to intervene effectively at the levels of prevention, intervention and rehabilitation.
• To address the ‘outrage fatigue’ and helplessness that many paediatric professionals experience in relation to bullying
• To situate bullying and interpersonal violence in a broader psycho-social, political and economic context.