Mental Health

Drug stock outs plague mental health patients

Mental Health, Our Health

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).

lungilethamela
October 27, 2015

Report: The Rural Mental Health Campaign Report

Health, Mental Health

Written by a coalition of civil society organisations and health care providers, the 43-page report details how access to mental health services in rural areas remains limited by the over-centralisation of services, budget and staff shortages, and discrimination.

healthe
October 16, 2015

Mental health – the poor, neglected stepchild

Mental Health

Mental disorders are the most stigmatized of all health problems. Yet they’re so widespread even our 5-year-olds aren't doing well, and our health system pays peanuts to address them.

kerrycullinan
October 12, 2015
1 Comment

True Life: ‘I remember thinking what it would be like the day after I committed suicide’

Mental Health, Our Health

Mpho Lekgheto’s brush with suicide changed her life. On the heels of the recent World Suicide Prevention Day, Lekgheto shares her story of hope and how she found the strength to not only cope but to devote her life to mental health.

mpholekgetho
September 22, 2015

Financial woes may be fuelling hidden depression

Mental Health, News, Our Health

About 20 percent of South Africans live on less than R350 per month and this kind of poverty could be having real impacts not only on people’s physical health but also their mental well being.

mpholekgetho
September 11, 2015

New HIV diagnoses still prompt thoughts of suicide, shame

Health, Mental Health, Our Health

With free treatment widely available, HIV is no longer a death sentence, but for many people newly diagnosed with the virus thoughts of death are still not far off.

Bontle Motsoeneng
August 26, 2015

Man kills himself after HIV diagnosis

Health, Mental Health, Our Health

A 26-year-old North West man recently killed himself after being diagnosed with HIV, leaving his family and two-year-old child in shock. A local counsellor says the death underscores the need for better counselling.

KagishoModise
July 29, 2015

Through the looking glass: ‘I was living an unliveable life’

Mental Health

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.

Guest Author
June 24, 2015

Unregulated old age homes may be on the rise

Health Systems, Mental Health, News

With only eight government-run old age homes nationwide, unregulated facilities may be preying on the elderly alongside loan sharks and even pensioners’ own families, according to a new South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) report.

ayandamkhwanazi
June 5, 2015

Prison’s long shadow: Stigma haunts former convicts

Mental Health, Our Health

The suicide of an ex-prisoner, who was allegedly stigmatised in his community because of his conviction, has left his mother reeling. A Northern Cape social worker has now called on communities to stop discriminating against those who have served their time for their crimes.

PolaoK
May 27, 2015

Through the looking glass: Silencing the critic

Mental Health, Women's Health

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.

Maternal mental health: Baby and bipolar

Mental Health, Our Health, Women's Health

Exams, pregnancy and a new baby – life for 17-year-old Busi Sibande* had been hectic, which is why her family thought nothing of her strange behavior until the new mum was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Through the looking glass: Learning to love life with bipolar

Mental Health

My confession is this: I have bipolar, writes Jocelyn Fryer as she she reflects on being hospitalised with bipolar and how she has learned to adjust to life after her diagnosis.

Guest Author
April 22, 2015
1 Comment

Mental illness alarming in prisons

Mental Health, News

Prison warders are unable to distinguish between a naturally violent inmate and a mentally ill inmate as they receive no training in identifying mental illness.

Bad dagga, good dagga?

Health, Mental Health

People who use high-potency cannabis (“skunk”) every day are five times more likely to have a schizophrenia-like psychotic episode than those who don’t, according to new research.

kerrycullinan
March 11, 2015

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