Cindee Bruyns
Research Project(s)
- Global Parenting Initiative
- Systems Testing of the Parenting for Lifelong Health Human-Digital Package
Research Interests
- Child protection and alternative care
- Child and adolescent behaviours and parenting
- Child and adolescent mental health
Biography
Cindee Bruyns is a LEGO Playful Parenting Fellow for the Safety and Violence Initiative at the Centre for Social Science Research. Her focus is on the Systems Testing of the Parenting for Lifelong Health (PLH) human-digital package within the Global Parenting Initiative. She is also a lecturer in the Department of Social Development at the University of Cape Town. Her research interests are in the mental health and positive development of vulnerable children and adolescents including focusing on their parents and the professionals who work with them. She practiced as a social worker for more than a decade. She has worked in the fields of orphaned and vulnerable children, residential care, child sexual abuse, behaviour management and parenting in very impoverished communities, working with the children and their families as well as training other professionals. She has developed two programs (a family reunification program and a specialised behaviour management program) which were both viewed by the Western Cape Department of Social Development as best practice models. Cindee also held the position of national child protection coordinator for the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW), South Africa during which time she represented the NACCW in parliamentary hearings for amendments to the Children's Act and the Sexual Offences Act. Cindee holds a Masters in Clinical Social Work and is currently completing her PhD on effective multidisciplinary team work between professionals working with orphaned and vulnerable children.