VIHASA Cape Town: Values in Healthcare Series

Bringing Values, Wellbeing and Compassionate Care to the Heart of Cape Town

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Throughout 2025, VIHASA hosted a series of free Values in Healthcare sessions at 7 Dunluce Avenue, Claremont, Cape Town. The series created a welcoming space for healthcare professionals, service providers and members of the wider community to pause, reflect and explore the values and inner qualities that support meaningful work and personal wellbeing.

Across four sessions, participants explored inner values, peace in the workplace, positive and solution-focused attitudes, and compassionate care.

The sessions were designed around an important principle at the heart of VIHASA’s work: caring for others begins with caring for ourselves and reconnecting with the values that give meaning to what we do.

Rediscovering My Inner Values

16 August 2025

The series began with Rediscovering My Inner Values – Gaining Strength Through Motivation.

Our values shape much of what we do as professionals and are often part of what drew us to our work in the first place. When we lose touch with these values, we can risk losing our sense of purpose, confidence and fulfilment, both professionally and personally.

This workshop invited participants to reconnect with their core values and rekindle the inspiration behind their work.

The session provided an opportunity to reflect on the qualities that matter most to us and consider how reconnecting with these values can provide strength and motivation in challenging times.

Peace at the Workplace

13 September 2025

The second session explored Peace at the Workplace.

Peace was introduced as our natural state — the idea that within each of us there is an innate core of calm and tranquillity.

For people working in demanding service professions, maintaining this inner peace can be challenging. The session explored simple yet powerful ways of reconnecting with this inner sense of peace and bringing greater peacefulness into everyday professional life.

By practising peacefulness, we can access positive qualities that help to build self-respect and contentment. The session also explored peacefulness as an important resource in addressing the pressures associated with burnout.

Being Positive

Supporting Positive Solution-Focused Attitudes

25 October 2025

The third session focused on Being Positive – Supporting Positive Solution-Focused Attitudes.

Positivity is about having the choice and power to change the way we think. Healthcare professionals are trained to think critically and, at times, may naturally focus on problems, risks and negative possibilities.

This session encouraged participants to recognise unhelpful patterns of thinking and learn to observe their thoughts, creating the possibility of shifting towards more positive ways of thinking.

The session explored how positivity and optimism can benefit not only ourselves, but also our colleagues and the patients and people we serve.

Participants were encouraged to consider how their attitudes and thoughts influence their interactions, their workplace environment and their ability to approach challenges with a more solution-focused perspective.

Compassionate Care

For the Self and the Patient

22 November 2025

The final session in the series explored Compassionate Care – For the Self and the Patient.

Compassion adds humanity to healthcare by expressing qualities such as patience, generosity and kindness towards ourselves and our patients.

Yet personal obstacles such as anger, anxiety, guilt and attachment can sometimes make it difficult to express compassion fully.

This session supported participants in recognising and exploring these barriers and encouraged them to embrace compassion as a conscious value within their professional practice.

The focus was not only on compassion for patients, but also on compassion for ourselves. By developing greater awareness and kindness towards ourselves, we can strengthen our capacity to offer compassionate care to others and support our own wellbeing.

A Journey Through Values

Together, these four sessions created a journey of reflection and learning:

• Rediscovering My Inner Values – reconnecting with purpose and motivation.

• Peace at the Workplace – discovering inner calm and bringing peacefulness into demanding professional environments.

• Being Positive – developing positive, solution-focused attitudes and becoming more aware of the power of our thoughts.

• Compassionate Care – bringing greater humanity, kindness and compassion to ourselves and those we care for.

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The Cape Town series reflects VIHASA’s commitment to creating spaces where people can step away from the pressures of everyday life, reconnect with their values and explore practical ways of bringing greater wellbeing, peace and compassion into their professional and personal lives.

Continuing the VIHASA Journey

The sessions at 7 Dunluce Avenue provided an opportunity for people to come together, learn from one another and explore the human dimensions of healthcare and service.

Through the Values in Healthcare approach, VIHASA continues to encourage a deeper understanding that the quality of care we offer to others is closely connected to how we care for ourselves.

The Cape Town Values in Healthcare Series was another step in this ongoing journey of living, loving, caring and sharing.