This post is part three in a series by TeenScreen intern Anna Volpe, a rising junior at Connecticut College who will study mental illness in South Africa. Her research focuses on the role of mental illness in South Africa, the stigma it presents, and available treatment options. We are proud to share her article on this topic.

Read parts one and two. The first two posts in this series focused on the state of mental health in South Africa. Here, Anna discusses ways to reduce stigma and provide treatment resources.

Early education is an important aspect to South Africa’s strategy to reducing stigma. The Cape Mental Health Society (CMHS) provides a Mental Health Awareness Schools’ Programme which is a preventative, educational, and interactive program that focuses on mental health, positive self-image, depression, life stress management, and substance abuse. Another organization, called the Central Gauteng Mental Health Society (CGMHS), has formed educational programs to reducing stigma in a more artistic way.

Two theatre productions have been created, entitled Madness Revealed: Chasun’s Story and Madness Revealed: Thandi’s Story. The former focuses on schizophrenia and is based on a true story of a woman’s battle and triumph over this disorder and the latter looks at bipolar disorder and incorporates the main character seeking help from a traditional healer.

Bringing awareness and promoting affirmative mental health through art-based activities can be successful and productive. Both of these productions have been presented in various communities and schools and have received high praise and positive feedback. The producers of these two shows are currently exploring possible sources of funding to present the plays across the country (Kakuma et al., 2010).

In the United States, there are also various organizations dedicated to helping reduce the stigma of mental illness. Erasing the Distance (ETD) is a non-profit arts organization that also uses the power of performance to disarm stigma, spark dialogue, educate, and promote healing, surrounding issues of mental health.

Like the Gauteng Mental Health Society’s productions, Erasing the Distance collects, records, and sculpts true stories from people impacted by mental health issues into theatrical pieces to present on stage. Furthermore, this organization leads outreach programs that provide youth with an opportunity to explore, learn, and perform their own mental health stories. Overall, the vision of Erasing the Distance is to be a creative leader in producing insight and consideration around the issues of mental health.

Early education and promoting awareness of mental health to the public is a huge aspect to the campaign of reducing this dominating stigma; however, I think that giving these educational, outreach programs an artistic and creative twist to them will further help this movement.

The arts, in general, has brought much joy and entertainment to all kinds of people throughout the years and I believe that using different mediums will effectively help and teach the public to comprehend the truths about mental illness, reduce the negative (and usually false) assumptions of these mental illnesses, and to spread and promote positive mental health for all.

For more information, read Anna’s literature review on studying mental illness in South Africa.

This post is part two in a series by TeenScreen intern Anna Volpe, a rising junior at Connecticut College who will study mental illness in South Africa. Her research focuses on the role of mental illness in South Africa, the stigma it presents, and available treatment options. We are proud to share her article on this topic.

Read part one here.

The last post focused on the shortage of mental health physicians and the prevalence of mental illness in South Africa. In addition, negative attitudes toward mental health run rampant through the population. Mental illness, over time, has been encircled by community misunderstanding, fear, and stigma. Shame toward people with a mental illness has a detrimental effect on their ability to receive services, their recovery, the type of treatment and support they obtain, and their overall acceptance in the community.

The study conducted by Kakuma et al., 2010 has shown that there were high levels of stigmatizing attitudes towards individuals with mental health disorders in South African communities. Even mental health nurses practicing in public hospitals held negative and stereotypical views of mental health care users. Stigma-reduced strategies are needed to address these issues to provide high quality mental health care and protect the rights of individuals with mental health disorders.

South African Anxiety and Depression Group (SADAG) is highly active in raising awareness and working towards reducing mental health stigm. Since 1995, SADAG has been one of the biggest mental health support and advocacy groups in Africa and provides counseling services, mental health awareness programs, media campaigns, school talks, and rural outreach activities across the country. Target audiences of such campaigns include general population, children and adolescents, women, trauma survivors, ethnic groups, and other vulnerable or minority groups (Kakuma et al., 2010). Additionally, SADAG has formed partnerships with the communities, leaders, schools, universities, churches, youth groups, prisons, corporations and government, particularly the Directorate of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in the national Department of Health. SADAG gives talks about mental health issues to these various communities, as well as produces educational materials.

Continue to part three: Mental Illness in South Africa: Early Education and Raising Awareness

This summer, Teenscreen welcomed intern Anna Volpe, a rising junior at Connecticut College in New London, CT. In addition to studying psychology, Anna is part of a program called PICA (Program in Community Action), where scholars combine traditional, classroom learning with experiential projects.

For her PICA project, Anna will study mental illness in South Africa during the fall, and will continue her studies while volunteering at a clinic or hospital in Cape Town this spring. Her research focuses on the role of mental illness in South Africa, the stigma it presents, and available treatment options. We are proud to share her article on this topic.

Mental health is a crucial public health issue that has been exerting significant negative social and economic influence on South African society. Epidemiological studies have shown that 16.5% of South Africans suffered from common mental disorders (i.e. depression, anxiety, and somatoform disorders¹) in the last year (HHaPP, 2008).

The prevalence of mental disorders aggravated by South Africa’s history of violence, exclusion, and racial discrimination under apartheid and colonialism. Other evidence shows that “poverty, inequality, urbanization, unemployment, trauma and violence, and substance abuse are major environmental risk factors for mental illness” (Burns, 2011) within South Africa.

Furthermore, studies show that people living with HIV/AIDS are at a greater risk of suffering from a neuropsychiatric disease (Burns, 2011). This evidence has serious implications for South Africa, a country that has the greatest number of people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide.

Meanwhile, the country faces a serious shortage of health professionals. In a recent survey, South Africa ranked 119 of 201 in terms of physicians per capita, and ranked too low for inclusion in terms of psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and psychiatric beds in mental health facilities (Lund et al., 2010).

During the most recent World Anti-Stigma Congress, Dr. Eugene Allers, a South African psychiatrist, reported that there are approximately 320 practicing psychiatrists in the country – making only one psychiatrist available for every 150,000 people (South African Encyclopedia, 2012).

Continue to part two: Mental Illness in South Africa: Misunderstanding, Fear, and Stigma

¹ Structural stigma refers to the violation of human rights through loss of employment, housing, voting, jury duty, holding public office, marriage, and parenting.