Mental healthcare in peril
The department of health's mental healthcare system is in disarray and has to be brought back on track as a matter of urgency. Health head of department, Dr Sipho Kabane said the department failed the exam when it came to mental healthcare.
POLOKWANE – The department of health’s mental healthcare system is in disarray and has to be brought back on track as a matter of urgency.
Health head of department, Dr Sipho Kabane said the department failed the exam when it came to mental healthcare. He spoke at the provincial mental health summit that was held at Bolivia Lodge last week.
“It’s not going well with the Limpopo department of health’s mental healthcare system. The system is not well led and policies are not well executed,” he admitted.
Health MEC, Ishmael Kgetjepe, said the department had to do more this year with less, as their budget had decreased with 2,9% and their infrastructure budget had declined from R467 million to R184 million. “How can we reconfigure mental healthcare services when we can barely sustain the current level of services,” he questioned.
Key health department managers were invited to the summit in order to help formulate key decisions, a vision, mission and plan to reach the goals set for the department in terms of the Mental Health Care Act, Act 12 of 2002.
Kabane further said the mental healthcare unit was always one of the dirtiest units in a hospital, the least staffed, with the worst infrastructure.
“Things will become worse as the economy becomes worse,” he said. “More, smarter and efficient ways to deal with mental patients need to be found. Many of our patients are in jail instead of in hospitals and instead of investing money in patients we are repairing burnt wards and infrastructure, we have to take a good look at what we can do,” Kabane said.
A few weeks ago a mental health patient burnt to death at the Letaba Hospital after a fire ravaged a ward at the hospital. The cause of the fire was still being investigated.
Various possible solutions were discussed during the summit. One of the suggestions was that community-based health care alternatives should be strengthened.
People should be able to go to district hospitals to be assessed and prescribed efficient medication and psychiatrists should assist ward-based outreach teams, were two other suggestions.
Kabane said he needed practical and specific solutions from health care workers dealing with mental care patients. “Don’t talk in broad terms, be specific with your needs, ” he told healthcare practitioners.
Kgetjepe said the stigma attached to mental health patients needed to be overcome.
