By: Buhle Mbhele
The South African Society of Psychiatrists says up to 92% of South Africans living with mental illness never receive treatment.
As a result, 3 out of 4 people are left without support for common conditions like depression, anxiety, and substance abuse.
For severe mental illnesses, fewer than 1 in 10 patients get the care they need.
The organisation’s Anusha Lachman calls for integrating mental health into primary care, training frontline workers, and raising public awareness.
“Our expertise needs to extend just beyond just consulting rooms, we should be able to collaborate with general practitioners with nurses, psychologists.
So that we can access patients who require that mental health support at various levels of care. Now compared to global benchmarks, South Africa in terms of public mental health services are dramatically under resourced,” said Lachman.
