The South Africa Federation for Mental Health recently released an awareness paper highlighting the alarming concern over lack of hospital beds for mental health service users, we well as the lack of aftercare available to patients post discharge.
The SA Federation talks of a ‘revolving door’ syndrome that has arisen as the government looks to close down inpatient beds in an effort to de-institutionalise care, however without providing sufficient alternatives for individuals to transition safely and effectively back into their communities.
The high rate of re-admission to institutional facilities is attributed to poor treatment adherence and defaulting, and early discharge due to bed shortages. In many instances patients admitted with mental health issues are rejected by their families; and hospital staff are forced to discharge patients knowing they have no support mechanism of friends or families to go to. This usually results in the same patient relapsing and being admitted within a week. This in turn means facilities lack the space to take on new cases.
A recent study by Burns (2010) showed that two thirds of Psychiatric Hospitals in KZN surveyed over a 5-year period (following 2002), experienced a decrease in income at some point. Despite these reductions, Community Based Services remain under-resourced, and suffer from ever-decreasing government funding to fulfil on their functions.
- No. of Day Treatment Facilities available in South Africa (population 47 million) = 80 day facilities (50% of these are run by NGOs)
- No. of Beds per 10,000 = 0.36 beds; located within 63 Community Residential Facilities (50% of these are provided by the SA Federation for Mental Health)
The SA Federation for Mental Health state in their recent press release:
“Mental Health services continue to labour under the legacy of colonial Mental Health systems, with heavy reliance on Mental Hospitals. There are 23 such hospitals in the country and 56% of Mental Health beds are located in these facilities. This is an outdated form of care, which is vulnerable to human rights abuses and stigmatisation of services users.”
During the month of July the SA Federation of Mental Health will launch Psychiatric Disability Awareness month. Their campaign plans to raise awareness around the lack of beds available for mental health care service users – specifically aimed at Government Departments and asking government to address these issues in a 5-year plan.
Read more: http://www.safmh.org.za/images/TreatmentFacilities.pdf
