Psychiatric patients left out in the cold
Contract to end March next year.
The Department of Health (DOH) will not renew its contract worth R324 million with the Life Healthcare group, leaving more than 2009 psychiatric patients from the West Rand with nowhere to go.
The DOH cited “de-institionalisation” as their reason for the move but the South African Federation for Mental Health (SAFMH) criticised this saying “the statement seems to imply that the DOH is terminating the contract in the spirit of de-institutionalisation, however de-institutionalisation (or down scaling of institutionalised care) ideally needs to go hand-in-hand with the up scaling of community based care and there is no indication that this seems to be the intention of the DOH. Instead the Department contradicts itself by stating that the savings that will be made will be utilised towards increasing staffing resources in psychiatric wards, which in itself is perpetuating the system of institutionalisation”.
SAFMH went on to say that “at present psychiatric hospitals are overburdened because of a lack of beds. The DOH’s proposed plan to refer service users to hospitals with psychiatric wards causes a revolving door where service users are admitted to already full psych wards, where they are often stabilised and discharged prematurely”.
The Life Healthcare Esidimeni in Randfontein, which is closest to Roodepoort in Gauteng, received R10 000 per month per patient. Here they received care and rehabilitation and it served as a halfway house when discharged from Sterkfontein and Weskoppies psychiatric hospitals.
According to Jack Bloom, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Health the Department plans to discharge mental patients direct to their homes, but many of them do not have homes to go to or are rejected by their families.
“Mental health NGOs are already overstretched in dealing with discharged patients. If adequate alternate arrangements are not made, there will be many vulnerable people left to fend for themselves and at risk of relapse.The Department cannot simply abandon these patients and needs to make proper arrangements for them,” said Bloom.
Local Discovery resident Marion Conway whose 55-year-old mother suffers from schizophrenia is one of those who will be affected.
“Where are all these psychotic patients supposed to go? They need full time care during the day and at night. They need special care givers to look after them and they need to be treated fairly. My mother cannot live alone without a care giver full time which is extremely expensive. Why is the government closing down these facilities? These are innocent citizens that cannot be left on the streets because they are a danger to themselves and to other people around them,” said Conway.
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