Esidimeni: This must NEVER happen again
The deaths of 94 mentally ill patients transferred from Esidimeni centre is the biggest recorded mental health scandal in the history of South Africa.
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Documentary Premiere: Dignity Denied
When the Gauteng Department of Health terminated its contract with private health service provider, Life Esidimeni, hundreds of mentally ill patients were placed in the care of people ill-equipped to look after them.
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If you are sane, you need to read this
I don’t trust my psychiatrist. She is a lovely woman, expedient and efficient at her job, and she is the only one of the many specialists that I have consulted who has successfully prescribed medication that does its job.
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Mass move of Gauteng’s mentally ill
Deinstitutionalisation. It sounds good: taking mentally ill people out of psychiatric institutions and putting them into community homes or back with their families. But the outcome is seldom positive, as Gauteng patients have discovered.
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What now for patients after psychiatric hospital closes?
Relatives of mentally ill loved ones protested last week, saying their family members are not doing well since they were discharged from Life Esidimeni’s psychiatric hospitals.
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Drug stock outs plague mental health patients
Elizabeth Mahlangu is living with HIV. When her Daveyton clinic runs out of her antidepressant, it can cost her R110 to refill her prescription at a private pharmacy. All too often, those like Mahlangu suffer in silence, says the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
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Through the looking glass: ‘I was living an unliveable life’
In the latest installment of her regular mental health blog, Jocelyn Fryer writes about how she lost – and found – her voice after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
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Through the looking glass: Silencing the critic
In her latest column on mental health, writer Jocelyn Fryer talks about what bipolar treatment meant for her body and what her new body meant for her.
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“Depression was a white people’s illness”
When a doctor told Bandile Maseko* he was suffering from depression, Maseko refused to believe it. Then things went from bad to worse.
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Mental illness tied to cancer risk
People with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder 2.6 times increased risk of developing cancer, according to a recent study in Psychiatric Services.
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Coping with a mentally ill loved one
Taking care of a mentally ill person can be emotionally exhausting for friends and families. But a strong support base at home and socially is necessary for people with mental illness to have a chance of being integrated back into society.
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Communities shy away from psychiatric institutions
Overcoming stigma remains a challenge when involving communities in activities at psychiatric institutions, however there are some success stories. Lungi Langa of Health-e News Service spent a morning with the Friends of Valkenberg Trust.
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Stigma still rife in mental health
Discrimination against people with mental disorders makes it difficult to reintegrate them into society. Psychiatric health specialists blame this on the lack of understanding of mental illness and not knowing how to deal with someone who is mentally ill. In this report, we meet someone who has experienced first-hand such discrimination.
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Life with two mental disorders
A 60 year-old Johannesburg woman gives us a glimpse of what it's like to live with two stigmatising mental disorders.
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Bara psychiatric staff do their best to stabilise acute patients
Despite huge staff shortages, Chris Hani Baragwanath's psychiatric wards provide some relief for the mentally ill.
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