Planning for district mental health services in South Africa: a situational analysis of a rural district site
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2009
TITLE AUTHOR(S): I.Petersen, A.Bhana, V.Campbell-Hall, S.Mjadu, C.Lund, S.Kleintjies, V.Hosegood, A.J.Flisher, Mental Health and Poverty Research Programme Consortium
KEYWORDS: MENTAL HEALTH, RURAL COMMUNITIES
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 5640
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/5056
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/5056
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
The shift in emphasis to universal primary health care in post-apartheid South Africa has been accompanied by a process of decentralization of mental health services to district level, as set out in the new Mental Health Care Act, no. 17, of 2002 and the 1997 White Paper on the Transformation of the Health System. This study sought to assess progress in South Africa with respect to deinstitutionalization and the integration of mental health into primary health care, with a view to understanding the resource implications of these processes at district level. A situational analysis in one district site, typical of rural areas in South Africa, was conducted, based on qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and the World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS). The findings suggest that the decentralization process remains largely limited to emergency management of psychiatric patients and ongoing psychopharmacological care of patients with stabilized chronic conditions. We suggest that, in a similar vein to other low- to middle-income countries, deinstitutionalization and comprehensive integrated mental health care in South Africa is hampered by a lack of resources for mental health care within the primary health care resource package, as well as the inefficient use of existing mental health resources.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Investment into eco-tourism projects: KwaZulu-Natal coastal belt: South Africa
- NASFAM funding proposal for the National AIDS Commission
- Trends and policy challenges in the rural economy: four provincial case studies
- Rural development in South Africa: tensions between democracy and traditional authority
- Living with rats
- The importance of indigenous knowledge in reducing poverty of rural Agrarian households
- Gender, development and transport in rural South Africa: methodological, policy and implementation challenges
- Rural municipality case studies: land reform, farm employment and livelihoods
- Rural development: strategies and challenges
- Planning for district mental health services in South Africa: a situational analysis of a rural district site
- Don't underestimate cities' role in rural growth
- Outcome 7: vibrant, equitable and sustainable rural communities and food security for all
- Sustainable rural development: employment and household farming
- Urban and rural areas: allies not rivals
- Whither agrarian reform in South Africa?
- Technological initiatives for rural development: evidence from eight comprehensive rural development programme pilot sites
- Understanding the benefits and challenges of community engagement in the development of community mental health services for common mental disorders: lessons from a case study in a rural South African subdistrict site
- Spatial mapping and analysis of integrated agricultural land use and infrastructure in Mhlontlo local municipality, Eastern Cape, South Africa
- Incomprehension follows the comprehensive rural development programme
- Reforming the land: agrarian reform projects missing pro-poor target