Date: 28/07/2005
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Mental Health Awareness Day
Speech by the Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, at the Mental Health Awareness Day, Madadeni, KwaZulu-Natal
Programme Director,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
It is an honour for me to have the opportunity to share this important day with you. I am pleased to note that the people of Madadeni have heeded the call to join in this event aimed at raising public awareness on the nature and scope of mental challenges and the life circumstances of people suffering from them.
Today’s event gives us an opportunity to reflect on the progress in relation to the commitment we made to transform the country’s mental health care provision into the one that would be effective and of high quality. This pledge we made in recognition of the obligations bestowed on us by the country’s Constitution to pave a way for a better life for the millions of people suffering from mental disorders.
Programme Director, allow me therefore to reaffirm the Department of Health’s commitment and determination to put mental health at the centre of government’s health transformation agenda.
Of course we do this fully cognisant of the fact that while the country experienced dramatic health service improvements around prevention and care in the past ten years, the mental component of our health system in many parts of the country is still lagging behind. In a nutshell, mental health has simply not being receiving the necessary attention and resources that it deserves given its burden on the country’s health system. My own experiences when visiting some of the mental health facilities strongly affirm this cold reality.
Studies indicate that mental illnesses are among the leading causes of disabilities worldwide. It is estimated that one in every four person who comes in contact with health services seeking for help is affected by a mental disorder, which is often missed or incorrectly diagnosed and treated.
Of all persons with disabilities, those with mental illnesses face the highest degree of stigmatisation, unfair discrimination, violation of their human rights, exploitation and abuse.
This discrimination results in the majority of mentally ill persons ending up unemployed, not having access to care or education and forced to rely on state grants for the rest of their lives.
This places a tremendous financial burden on the state fiscal. More often persons with mental illnesses are viewed as being unskilled, unproductive, unreliable, violent and unable to handle workplace pressures.
Depression has been cited as the most common mental illness that doctors are called upon to diagnose and treat, and, contrary to misconceptions, it responds well to treatment, like many other forms of mental illness.
As government, and the custodian of the health and well being of our people, we are determined to pursue every conceivable path within the confines of our resources to ensure that we improve this situation.
Programme Director our message today is clear: people suffering from mental illnesses have a right to treatment, care and rehabilitation with respect, dignity and privacy.
And this is the message we hope to bring home as part of our awareness campaign to educate our health care workers and the general public on mental illness.
This year’s Mental illness Awareness Campaign takes place against the backdrop of the recent promulgation of the Mental Health Care Act by our President.
This Act ushered in a process to develop and redesign mental health services to be inline with the rights for mental health care users as guaranteed by the Constitution of this country.
This progressive legislation grants – for the very first time in this country - basic rights to people with mental illnesses and also protection from different forms of exploitation, abuse and unfair discrimination.
The Act makes provision for, among others:
* Empowerment of the users themselves so that they can engage service providers and society;
* Allocation of adequate resources,
* Commitment and leadership for the course of mental health at all levels of society.
The Mental Health Act aims to achieve these goals by introducing a series of innovative processes and procedures in the care, treatment and rehabilitation of mental health users and sets clear guidelines on good practice in relation to the role of mental health care practitioners.
For an example, the Act provides for the establishment of provincial Review Boards – which should conduct systematic review of practices for quality assurance.
It is our firm belief that this would go a long way in addressing some of the key challenges in the provision of mental health service in particular the traditional one-size-fits-all treatment approach that is centred around institutionalisation and displacement of patients.
Although the Act reserves the right to involuntary hospitalisation - it also sets forth accompanying conditions for strict admission and reviewing processes and procedures before any decision on psychiatric referrals.
Ladies and gentlemen research has shown that good family and community support can be extremely therapeutic to a person recovering from a mental illness.
Therefore the successful implementation of this law would depend not only on government but also on a strong partnership with communities and other stakeholders.
I therefore wish to make a call for all of us as government, private sector and communities to take full ownership of this process and join in the partnership to improve mental health in our country.
To give effect to this partnership, the Act provides for the establishment of licensed health care centres by non-governmental organisations (NGO’s), community based organisation and the private sector.
The Act further encourages the utilisation of primary and community based mental health treatment as a way to exploit the continued expansion of the country’s clinic network for affective facility and medical accessibility.
Thus the new legislation prescribes the use of primary health care as the first point of admission and examination for mental patients before referrals to secondary facilities or psychiatric hospitals.
The proximity of family and friends and familiar environment is crucial in providing support system and the opportunity for the person to regain his/her sense of self-esteem, control and self worth.
This will also help encourage reintegration and break down the stigma attached to mental illness.
Furthermore it would ensure accessibility of appropriate medicines, as this is often one of the barriers towards effective mental health care.
Many mental health patients end up defaulting treatment and inevitable relapsing because medication cannot be easily accessed in their locality.
To the private sector and business representatives here present, I would like to appeal to you also to play your part in opening up employment opportunities to people who are recovering from these illnesses through the development and maintenance of working conditions that support and contribute to their well being.
Mental illness can be treated. With the recent advances in knowledge and health technologies, most people with mental and behavioural disorders can be become functional and lead productive lives within their family and community.
Our campaign this year is intended to educate and break down some of these myths surrounding mental illness.
I want to assure all here that the Department of Health is working very hard to ensure among others that we cultivate a culture of good practice among our health care workers and also to improve the state of the majority of the country’s psychiatric hospitals.
We all agree that mental health is a priority programme for government and as such this must also translate to prioritisation in the hospital revitalisation programme and infrastructure development.
I therefore urge all of us to double the effort in our quest to reform and restructure our mental health service and to improve the life of those mental health care users and their families who often suffer in silence.
There is no health without mental health!
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health
28 July 2005
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Mental Health Awareness Day
Speech by the Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, at the Mental Health Awareness Day, Madadeni, KwaZulu-Natal
Programme Director,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
It is an honour for me to have the opportunity to share this important day with you. I am pleased to note that the people of Madadeni have heeded the call to join in this event aimed at raising public awareness on the nature and scope of mental challenges and the life circumstances of people suffering from them.
Today’s event gives us an opportunity to reflect on the progress in relation to the commitment we made to transform the country’s mental health care provision into the one that would be effective and of high quality. This pledge we made in recognition of the obligations bestowed on us by the country’s Constitution to pave a way for a better life for the millions of people suffering from mental disorders.
Programme Director, allow me therefore to reaffirm the Department of Health’s commitment and determination to put mental health at the centre of government’s health transformation agenda.
Of course we do this fully cognisant of the fact that while the country experienced dramatic health service improvements around prevention and care in the past ten years, the mental component of our health system in many parts of the country is still lagging behind. In a nutshell, mental health has simply not being receiving the necessary attention and resources that it deserves given its burden on the country’s health system. My own experiences when visiting some of the mental health facilities strongly affirm this cold reality.
Studies indicate that mental illnesses are among the leading causes of disabilities worldwide. It is estimated that one in every four person who comes in contact with health services seeking for help is affected by a mental disorder, which is often missed or incorrectly diagnosed and treated.
Of all persons with disabilities, those with mental illnesses face the highest degree of stigmatisation, unfair discrimination, violation of their human rights, exploitation and abuse.
This discrimination results in the majority of mentally ill persons ending up unemployed, not having access to care or education and forced to rely on state grants for the rest of their lives.
This places a tremendous financial burden on the state fiscal. More often persons with mental illnesses are viewed as being unskilled, unproductive, unreliable, violent and unable to handle workplace pressures.
Depression has been cited as the most common mental illness that doctors are called upon to diagnose and treat, and, contrary to misconceptions, it responds well to treatment, like many other forms of mental illness.
As government, and the custodian of the health and well being of our people, we are determined to pursue every conceivable path within the confines of our resources to ensure that we improve this situation.
Programme Director our message today is clear: people suffering from mental illnesses have a right to treatment, care and rehabilitation with respect, dignity and privacy.
And this is the message we hope to bring home as part of our awareness campaign to educate our health care workers and the general public on mental illness.
This year’s Mental illness Awareness Campaign takes place against the backdrop of the recent promulgation of the Mental Health Care Act by our President.
This Act ushered in a process to develop and redesign mental health services to be inline with the rights for mental health care users as guaranteed by the Constitution of this country.
This progressive legislation grants – for the very first time in this country - basic rights to people with mental illnesses and also protection from different forms of exploitation, abuse and unfair discrimination.
The Act makes provision for, among others:
* Empowerment of the users themselves so that they can engage service providers and society;
* Allocation of adequate resources,
* Commitment and leadership for the course of mental health at all levels of society.
The Mental Health Act aims to achieve these goals by introducing a series of innovative processes and procedures in the care, treatment and rehabilitation of mental health users and sets clear guidelines on good practice in relation to the role of mental health care practitioners.
For an example, the Act provides for the establishment of provincial Review Boards – which should conduct systematic review of practices for quality assurance.
It is our firm belief that this would go a long way in addressing some of the key challenges in the provision of mental health service in particular the traditional one-size-fits-all treatment approach that is centred around institutionalisation and displacement of patients.
Although the Act reserves the right to involuntary hospitalisation - it also sets forth accompanying conditions for strict admission and reviewing processes and procedures before any decision on psychiatric referrals.
Ladies and gentlemen research has shown that good family and community support can be extremely therapeutic to a person recovering from a mental illness.
Therefore the successful implementation of this law would depend not only on government but also on a strong partnership with communities and other stakeholders.
I therefore wish to make a call for all of us as government, private sector and communities to take full ownership of this process and join in the partnership to improve mental health in our country.
To give effect to this partnership, the Act provides for the establishment of licensed health care centres by non-governmental organisations (NGO’s), community based organisation and the private sector.
The Act further encourages the utilisation of primary and community based mental health treatment as a way to exploit the continued expansion of the country’s clinic network for affective facility and medical accessibility.
Thus the new legislation prescribes the use of primary health care as the first point of admission and examination for mental patients before referrals to secondary facilities or psychiatric hospitals.
The proximity of family and friends and familiar environment is crucial in providing support system and the opportunity for the person to regain his/her sense of self-esteem, control and self worth.
This will also help encourage reintegration and break down the stigma attached to mental illness.
Furthermore it would ensure accessibility of appropriate medicines, as this is often one of the barriers towards effective mental health care.
Many mental health patients end up defaulting treatment and inevitable relapsing because medication cannot be easily accessed in their locality.
To the private sector and business representatives here present, I would like to appeal to you also to play your part in opening up employment opportunities to people who are recovering from these illnesses through the development and maintenance of working conditions that support and contribute to their well being.
Mental illness can be treated. With the recent advances in knowledge and health technologies, most people with mental and behavioural disorders can be become functional and lead productive lives within their family and community.
Our campaign this year is intended to educate and break down some of these myths surrounding mental illness.
I want to assure all here that the Department of Health is working very hard to ensure among others that we cultivate a culture of good practice among our health care workers and also to improve the state of the majority of the country’s psychiatric hospitals.
We all agree that mental health is a priority programme for government and as such this must also translate to prioritisation in the hospital revitalisation programme and infrastructure development.
I therefore urge all of us to double the effort in our quest to reform and restructure our mental health service and to improve the life of those mental health care users and their families who often suffer in silence.
There is no health without mental health!
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health
28 July 2005
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