Welcome to episode 30! In this week’s coffee with consultants feature, I had the immense privilege and honour of interviewing Dr Efrat Barnes, a clinician at the Teddy Bear Clinic, an important part of the Teddy Bear Foundation’s work against child abuse in all its forms, as well as a neurodevelopmental specialist at the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. 
Dr Efrat is a fantastic human being, a mother, a wife, and a doctor working to save and improve the lives of children who have either been through intense trauma or are at serious risk of harm. She has also been through extreme trials over the past three years in her own physical and mental health - something we address during the interview - and has so much to share with you - the listeners of the Dr Coffee Podcast, to enlarge your understanding and equip you for being a better doctor.
It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of the work the Teddy Bear Clinic is doing, as an important medico-legal and forensic clinic for assessing victims and their families and building cases that ultimately put the perpetrators of abuse behind bars. In addition, they offer counselling and support services to victims and families, conduct outreach and education programmes, and train multi-disciplinary teams as well as specialists such as paediatric registrars and consultants to diagnose, treat and refer in cases of all forms of abuse.
This episode, which only *touches* the surface of what Dr Efrat and the Teddy Bear Clinic does, is part of our desire and effort on the Dr Coffee Podcast to spotlight topics that are especially important to practising medicine in South Africa. Of course, we love podcasts, and there are many podcasts available about the wide world of medicine and surgery and the array of subspecialties within them, but few that are set in a South African context and address uniquely South African problems and solutions. It is a privilege to be able to contribute to the conversation and development of junior doctors and medical students in South Africa.
In addition to this episode, we hope to have Dr Efrat Barnes on the podcast for a future panel discussion episode we have planned all about the problem of Gender-based violence in our country, so watch out for that. It goes without saying that the nature of the content of this episode of the Dr Coffee podcast may be triggering to some listeners, so please be advised, and do reach out for help if necessary.
Thank you again to our special guest, Dr Efrat Barnes, for sharing so freely from her professional and personal life. If you have feedback on what you thought of this episode or anything else on your mind, please get in touch. The podcast’s email address is ⁠drcoffeeza@gmail.com⁠. We’re also on ⁠Instagram⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, ⁠TikTok⁠ and ⁠Youtube⁠. Submit a voice message to the Dr Coffee Podcast ⁠here⁠: https://anchor.fm/simon-fraser8/message
Lastly, while you’re here, please leave a rating or review of the podcast! Consider sharing this episode with fellow junior doctors and medical students in your world who you think would benefit from the content and enjoy it. Thank you so much for your support!