occasion of the launch of the Mental Health Awareness Campaign, Paul Tsotetsi
Sports Ground, Sebokeng
11 March 2009
Honourable Mayor of Sedibeng, Clr Assistance Mshudulu
Honourable Mayor of Emfuleni, Clr S Mofokeng
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Health in Sedibeng, Clr Maipato
Tsokolibane
Councillors present
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
As government, we usually observe March as the Human Rights Month. We have
decided to dedicate most of our campaigns towards creating awareness around the
mental health.
Program Director,
The United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) lists reduction of
the mortality of children with the intellectual disabilities as one of the
goals that nations and governments should strive to achieve.
As most of us will recall, in the past, intellectually disabled children
were excluded from the mainstream of education, they were isolated, and placed
in special schools, irrespective of their level of disability.
We still live in a society where ignorance about mental disabilities results
in unfair discrimination of people who could be productive members of
society.
Programme Director
We admit that there is a serious lack of reliable information about the nature
and prevalence of mental disability in our province.
People with mental disabilities are excluded from the main stream of society
and experience difficulty in accessing fundamental social, political and
economic rights.
The physical, emotional and mental scars that we carry from the conflict of
our past have resulted in the increase in the incidence of mental illness.
The district of Sedibeng has not escaped this scourge. As most of you will
remember, when the revolution erupted in 1984, it erupted right here in
Sedibeng.
The apartheid army and the police were deployed to crush the popular revolt
that ultimately led to our liberation as a country.
In the process of crushing that popular revolt, a number of our people were
traumatised.
The violence that was unleashed in this area against our people in the early
1990s further dehumanised them.
Families lost their loved ones, young boys and girls had to outgrow
childhood before their time and defend their communities.
All of these were catalysts to the mental scars that were inflicted on our
people.
The subsequent decline of the economy in Sedibeng further contributed to the
mental anguish that was visited upon the people of Sedibeng, as this resulted
in loss of jobs and diminished prospects of employment for school leavers.
Programme Director,
The picture I have just painted, partly explains the current mental health
status of some of our people in the district.
In 2007, we visited some clinics at Sebokeng; I was personally shocked that
one clinic recorded 70 mental health visits on any given day.
I therefore took personal interest in this matter because, it said to me we
might be busying ourselves trying to meet the demands of those who seek our
health services while neglecting another key aspect of health care, which is
the mental well being of our people
Programme Director,
We come from a society which consciously excluded people who have mental
disabilities.
This exclusion is as a result of a range of factors including social
attitudes which have perpetuated stereotypes of mentally ill people as totally
dependant and in need of care.
Political and economic exclusion also exacerbated the problem.
Programme Director,
It is important that we distinguish between mental illness and intellectual
disability.
Confusion of these conditions has led to unfair discrimination and
unnecessary stigmatisation.
Intellectual disability is:
* a significantly reduced ability to understand new or complex information, to
learn new skills (impaired intelligence) with
* a reduced ability to cope independently (impaired social functioning)
* starts before adulthood, with a lasting effect on development.
Intellectual disability does not include all those who have an intellectual
or learning difficulty, which is more broadly defined in education
legislation.
Intellectual disability can either be, mild, moderate, severe or
profound.
People are diagnosed as being intellectually disabled when they:
* have a below average level of intellectual functioning with an intelligence
quotient (IQ) of less than 70
* experience two or more difficulties with skills of daily living such as
personal hygiene, self direction.
The onset occurs before the age of 18 years.
People with these conditions have a right to a place in society, and a right
to education, training, work and social inclusion.
However, too often they are denied appropriate education and work
opportunities, and socially sidelined, abused and exploited.
Our role as government is to remove, or help them to overcome, obstacles
that deny them the opportunity to reach their full potential.
As the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH), we have elevated mental health
programmes, to a directorate level in order to ensure that the services that we
deliver to enhance the mental health status of our people match the challenges
that are posed by this problem.
I therefore challenge the management of the department to allocate resources
that are commensurate with the challenge that we face.
Honourable Mayor,
I will be the first one to admit that in our quest to break the back of some
communicable diseases, we have not paid sufficient attention to mental
health.
The problem has thus escalated to the point where consequences will be to
ghastly if we do not pour sufficient and appropriate resources to mental health
programmes.
If you visit some of our mental hospitals, you will be amazed at the
increasing number of young people below the age of thirty who have been
admitted.
22 percent of the patients who were admitted in our mental hospitals are
younger than the age of thirty.
Programme Director,
In order to illustrate the acute nature of this problem in Sedibeng, allow me
to relate some statistics regarding patients who presented themselves at some
of our clinics in Sedibeng from October to December in 2008:
* In October 2008, 3 954 patients presented themselves at our clinics
seeking mental health care, of these 658 were under the age of 18.
* In November 2008, 3 608 patients presented themselves at our clinics, of
these 567 were under the age of 18.
* In December 2008, 2 644 patients were seen at our clinics, of these 311 were
under the age of 18.
Surely, this is a challenge not only for government, but for society as a
whole.
Most of the symptoms are associated with the high incidence of drug and
alcohol abuse among young people.
We are seeing increasing cases of psychosis and depression after giving
birth. We have a number of people seeking bereavement counselling. Suicidal
tendencies among the youth are alarming.
Therefore, it is therefore incumbent on all of us to familiarise ourselves
with symptoms of mental disability.
This will assist us in making informed decisions regarding appropriate
referral of our loved ones in case they need specialist treatment.
As government we are trying to move away from confining people to
institutions as this does not contribute to their rehabilitation.
We have decided to encourage establishment of nonâgovernmental organisations
(NGOs) which collaborate with us in re-integrating people with mental
disabilities into the mainstream of society.
That is why we are funding eight Mental Health non-governmental
organisations in Sedibeng. Seven of these non-governmental organisations are
concentrated in Emfuleni.
By integrating Mental Health Care programmes into Primary Healthcare, we
want to ensure that patients receive care next to where they live.
Most of our professional nurses have been trained in mental health. By the
end of April 2009, all our clinics in Sedibeng.
Containers will be utilised in those clinics where there is insufficient
space as this will be an additional service. Support groups will be increased
to 13.
Programme Director,
Through our health promoters and community health workers, we will intensify
our efforts to inform the community of their role towards children with
intellectual disabilities.
We are also engaging the Department of Education (DoE) with a view to
implement inclusive education of the intellectually disabled children.
We will also conduct mass education campaigns to inform communities on early
identification of intellectual disabilities. The role of community leaders
including churches in advocating for people with mental disabilities will be
crucial for the success of our efforts.
The African National Congress (ANC) government has prioritised health and
education for the next term of office. The ANC will pursue its programmes of
preventing illness and promoting a healthy and economically active community
by:
* providing ongoing programmes to educate community on management of day to
day crisis
* providing resources in the community for early identification and management
of intellectual disabilities
* providing good quality services to ensure that the mentally ill and
intellectual disabled children can be reintegrated to their communities and
remain there
* joining hands with NGOs, professional associations, government agencies, and
schools to raise awareness on the issues of inclusive education
* supporting NGOs that provide for those who do not have families or whose
families can not cope with them.
Programme Director,
At this point I would like to take a moment to pay attention to ongoing
reports about meningitis in the province of Gauteng.
We cannot understate our concern for all our communities to live in healthy
and safe environments. This ideal we mainly succeed in through partnerships and
co-operation with our communities and its leaders. For a number of years we
have been responding effectively to the illness of meningitis. Our approach is
informed by years of international exposure to how we can best contain this
illness.
The facts are that in 2008 we had 53 confirmed cases of meningitis of which
44 people recovered. In 2007 it was 200 people and 185 recovered whilst in 2006
there were 171 cases with people of which 144 survived.
What this tells us that we are keeping a close watch on how illnesses like
meningitis occur within our communities, as well as how best to respond to
it.
We call on our communities, especially of Eldorado Park, to work with us in
ensuring that we respond to this illness with the real facts.
The health of our children is a highly emotive issue for each one of us and
any suggestions that it is threatened is bound to cause panic and concern. We
therefore understand the manner in which parents have reacted following recent
false reports about the situation on the ground.
But that said, we have to work together in ensuring that we get the facts
for what they are so that we are sure we can make the right choices.
Whenever there is a case of meningitis, through established channels of
communication between my department and hospitals, we have been able to ensure
an effective response within a period of 24 hours. It is by no accident that we
generally have such a high recovery rates.
As a concerned parent I can confirm today that we do not have an outbreak of
meningitis in Gauteng. Throughout these years meningitis has been sporadic and
this continues to this day.
Programme Director,
Returning to the business of the day, I would like to take this opportunity to
commend the Sedibeng Health District for funding two day care centres that have
gone a long way towards ensuring that parents of intellectually disabled
children pursue gainful employment while their children are being looked
after.
The district also provides a comprehensive package of health services to
three day and residential care centres which look after of orphans.
These centres are located in Sebokeng, they are June Nicols, Lebohang,
Masupatsela, Sukasambe centres.
The ANC government will pursue reconstruction and development of our society
which involves addressing the developmental needs of disabled persons within a
framework of inclusive development.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Health, Gauteng Provincial Government
11 March 2009
