Mental care at hospitals ailing

CRITICAL: ONLY SIX PSYCHIATRISTS SERVE LIMPOPO

Fewer than two carers for every 100 000 of the population, says world body.

There is a critical shortage of qualified psychiatrists in the public healthcare sector. As a result, a number of public hospitals do not have any psychiatric professionals, according to the president of the South African Society of Psychiatrists (Sasop), Professor Bonginkosi Chiliza.

Chiliza told New Frame that Sasop has more than 600 members, with about 200 psychiatrists in the public health sector.

He said most of the hospitals that operate with no psychiatrists are in rural areas, adding that psychiatrists in these areas are overstretched and often “burnt out”.

“They often have to drive very far to do outreach in districts that are not well served by psychiatrists,” said Chiliza.

Some psychiatrists have left the public sector, as the working conditions were not acceptable to them.

In 2011, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that South Africa had 1.58 psychosocial care providers per 100 000 people and recommended the country increase its psychosocial caregivers to 2 937 per 100 000.

In 2017, the office of the health ombudsman released a report on the 2016 Life Esidimeni tragedy, in which at least 144 psychiatric patients lost their lives because of neglect. The report highlighted that “the entire referral system is now even more poorly resourced than before”.

After the release of the report, Sasop called for an urgent overhaul of the mental healthcare system. Then president, Professor Bernard Janse van Rensburg, said the tragedy was the result of years of neglect, delay and failure to prioritise mental healthcare across all provinces.

Sasop’s provincial subgroups met in Cape Town in 2017 and singled out Limpopo and the Eastern Cape as insufficiently resourced provinces. “Only six public sector psychiatrists serve the whole of Limpopo, but mainly from general hospitals.”

The two provinces did not have psychiatric care available for children and adolescents.

The South African Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag) said it received about 600 calls a day from people all over the country needing help with different mental health issues.

South Africa has numerous policies in place to protect the mentally ill and ensure that they enjoy equal rights, including the Mental Health Care Act, the White Paper on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2013-2020. But these policies have yet to produce effective results.

Last year, the Eastern Cape health department was hit by allegations of abuse and human rights violations at the Tower Psychiatric Hospital in Fort Beaufort. The claims against the hospital included patients being mistreated and served poor-quality food.

Sasop said it would like to strengthen the psychiatric services at regional hospitals and community mental health centres and allow those with mental illnesses to be admitted to facilities near home.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) warned the shortage of psychiatrists has demotivated

Department has no database for this sector

nurses.

“In fact, in most cases nurses fall victim to physical attack,” said Denosa. In 2016, Sasop reported that an in-patient at Hayani Psychiatric Hospital in Venda killed a psychiatric nurse. Since then, the hospital has had no psychiatrist.

The organisation highlighted that at times patients do not recover because of lack of care.

The department of health said each province determined its staffing needs based on local mental health needs.

The department acknowledged there was no national database of mental health practitioners, said health department spokesperson Popo Maja. – Newframe.com