Anneliese de Wet is a research scientist at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. She completed her PhD in Psychology at Stellenbosch University in South Africa in 2020. For her dissertation she developed an individual measure of recovery for a South African context by exploring the understanding of recovery for persons, their carers and their service providers, as well as the barriers and facilitators of recovery. This was the first such measure developed for a South African context. Anneliese is particularly interested in peer support work. She would like to contribute to the firm establishment of professional peer support work as a resource, and the empowerment of persons through peer support work, in South Africa.
Another related interest she has, is positive psychological ways of addressing mental health challenges, such as stigma. For her postdoctoral study at the Center, she focused on exploring workplace stigma resistance and the mechanisms thereof among peer support specialists. Anneliese has also been engaged in other research at the Center which included a randomized controlled trial testing the effectiveness of a coaching intervention to address peer specialists’ stress and distress on the job. Currently, she is involved in a Center study on exploring state-level policies to support older persons with serious mental illnesses. Previously, she conducted research on the lived experience of recovery from first-episode psychosis in a South African sample and worked on a Canadian CIHR-funded international, multi-site study on community engagement in HIV vaccine research.
Selected publications
De Wet, A., & Maru, M. (2023). The importance of family involvement with service users from three perspectives in a South African context. WAPR e-Bulletin, 51, 29-37. https://www.wapr.org/bulletin-archive/wapr-bulletin-51/
De Wet, A., & Augustine, L. (2022). True mental health recovery for young South Africans: With the help of our peers. Quest, 18(4), 30-32. https://research.assaf.org.za/assafserver/api/core/bitstreams/06ea07f0-28b7-4ada-b7f0-9bde39b9174e/content
De Wet, A., & Kagee, A. (2022). Community participation in epidemiological research. In G. Joubert & Myer, L. (Eds.). Epidemiology: A Research Manual for South Africa. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxford.co.za/book/9780190758691-epidemiology-a-research-manual-for-africa-4e
De Wet, A., & Pretorius, C. (2022). From darkness to light: Barriers and facilitators to mental health recovery in the South African context. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 68(1), 82-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020981126
De Wet, A., & Pretorius, C. (2021). Perceptions and Understanding of Mental Health Recovery for Service Users, Carers and Service Providers: A South African Perspective. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 44(2), 157-165. https://doi.org/10.1037/prj0000460
De Wet, A., Dowling, T., Swartz, L., Lesch, A., Kagee, A., Kafaar, Z., Hassan, N. R., & Newman, P. A. (2020) Complexities in the process of translating research documents in cross-cultural settings. Global Public Health, 15(6), 818-827. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2020.1718736
De Wet, A., Swartz, L., Kagee, A., Lesch, A., Kafaar, Z., Hassan, N. R., Robbertze, D., & Newman, P. A. (2020). The trouble with difference: challenging and reproducing inequality in a biomedical HIV research community engagement process. Global Public Health, 15, 22-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2019.1639209
De Wet, A., Swartz, L., & Chiliza, B. (2015). Hearing their voices: The lived experience of recovery from first-episode psychosis in schizophrenia in South Africa. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 61, 27-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764014535753
Selected presentations
De Wet, A., Shulman, A., & Russinova, Z. (2023). Workplace prejudice and discrimination as a barrier to the integration of mental health peer support specialists: An ecological lens. Poster presentation at the American Public Health Association 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo, Atlanta, GA. November 12th – 15th, 2023.
De Wet, A. (2023). Exploration of workplace stigma resistance among peer support specialists. Oral presentation at the 100th Annual Conference of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, Atlanta, GA. October 30th – November 2nd, 2023.
De Wet, A., & Shulman, A. (2023). Stigma resistance: Peer support specialists withstanding prejudice and discrimination on the job. Workshop at the 2023 National Association of Peer Supporters Annual Conference, Norfolk, VA. October 24th – 26th, 2023.
De Wet, A., Shulman, A., & Russinova, Z. (2023). Re-imaging peer support as an equitable mental health service. Plenary presentation at the 6th International Refocus on Recovery conference, Nottingham, United Kingdom. September 6th – 7th, 2023.
De Wet, A. (2019). For different clients it will be different: Interviews with service users, service providers and carers regarding the meaning of mental health recovery in the South African context. Oral presentation at the 5th International Refocus on Recovery conference, Nottingham, United Kingdom. September 3rd – 5th, 2019.
De Wet, A., Pretorius, C., & Parker, J. (2017). The development of a contextually-appropriate measure of individual recovery for mental health service users in the South African context. Poster presentation at the 4th International Refocus on Recovery conference, Nottingham, United Kingdom. September 18th – 20th, 2017.
De Wet, A., Swartz, L., & Chiliza, B. (2015). Hearing their voices: The lived experience of recovery from first-episode psychosis in schizophrenia in South Africa. Oral presentation at the 19th International Society for the Psychological and Social Approaches to Psychosis Congress, The Cooper Union, New York, United States of America. March 18th – 22nd, 2015.
De Wet, A., Swartz, L., & Chiliza, B. (2014). Hearing their voices: The lived experience of recovery from first-episode psychosis in schizophrenia in South Africa. Oral presentation at the 3rd International Refocus on Recovery conference, New Hunt’s House, Guy’s Hospital, London, United Kingdom. June 2nd – 3rd, 2014.
