Families who battle to cope
“IT was seven days of hell,” said a tearful Anna Molobi.
Her “hell” was the violent outbreaks and hysteria from her son Moses, 34, during his weeklong December visit to their Diepsloot home, north of Johannesburg.
Moses is schizophrenic and was institutionalised at a Life Esidimeni healthcare centre at age 18.
“He gets violent at times. I am scared of him because he is grown and he overpowers me and others,” Molobi said
Her worst fear now is the possibility of Moses being discharged as social workers from Sterkfontein Hospital have told her that he has “shown signs of recovery” and “will be released soon”.
Molobi and the families of other psychiatric patients who survived the move from Life Esidimeni are anxious after being told that their loved ones are being discharged.
“I got a call two weeks ago and the social workers told me that he is due to be released soon.
“I asked them why so soon, they just said any time from now.
“Moses is aggressive and needs someone to look after him because he can’t do anything for himself,” she said.
Molobi visited Moses at the hospital every two weeks and was glad that when Esidimeni was closed, he was not moved to one of the NGOs implicated in the deaths of 94 patients.
“I love him so much, he is my son. I’m not running away from my responsibility,” she said, adding that Moses once stabbed his aunt. “I don’t want anything bad to happen to him or anyone else.”
Adding to her concerns is the health of her 20-year-old pregnant daughter.
“I’m a single mother. I am a breadwinner and I cannot leave my domestic job work to take care of Moses,” Molobi said.
Molobi and her daughter are renting a cramped single-room backyard flat.
“You can see our living conditions; if he is released I don’t know how the setup will be, because he also has a tendency of just getting lost.
“I do not have nursing and social worker skills so I will be helpless if they discharge him,” she said.
Molobi’s concerns are shared by Marion Conway, whose mother Anita Conway, 57, is schizophrenic and delusional.
Anita was at Life Esidimeni for several years where she received 24-hour care, including help using the toilet. She has been moved to Sterkfontein Hospital, which now wants to discharge her.
Sterkfontein social workers sent Marion a list of private and state old-age homes she could send her mother to. Some homes cost R12 500 a month, which Marion cannot afford.
On Friday, however, after months of e-mails and phone calls to the department and Sterkfontein Hospital, Conway was called by a doctor and told “not to worry” as her mother would not be discharged.
Professor Crick Lund, director of the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health at the
He gets violent. I am scared of him because he is grown and he overpowers me
University of Cape Town, said that in South Africa “mental healthcare has been chronically underfunded for many years”.
“There are insufficient residential care facilities for severely ill psychiatric patients who require long-term care.”
CEO of Sterkfontein Hospital Jimmy Mapunya assured the Sunday Times it would not throw patients out of the hospital.
“We will not discharge patients until they are ready to be discharged. Doctors only discharge patients when they are happy with their clinical outcome.”