ArticleSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2010
Public sector mental health systems in South Africa: inter-provincial comparisons and policy implications.
Article in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 78 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
78 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Governance and mental health: contributions for public policy approach.Revista de saude publica · 2017Pooled it
- Treating depression and improving adherence in HIV care with task-shared cognitive behavioural therapy in Khayelitsha, South Africa: a randomized controlled trial.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2021Trial
- Enhancing agency for health providers and pregnant women experiencing intimate partner violence in South Africa.Global public health · 2020Trial
- "The sun has set even though it is morning": Experiences and explanations of perinatal depression in an urban township, Cape Town.Transcultural psychiatry · 2016Trial
- Trial
- Co-producing adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) care in South Africa: A patient-centred framework for agency, trust, satisfaction and continuity.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Counselling within South Africa's public health system: Mental healthcare users' experiences.Journal of public health in Africa · 2026Article
- 'Stay with the body': facilitating integrative silence in community-based sexual trauma care.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Young adults' perceptions of their families' health beliefs and influence on mental health care seeking in rural South Africa.Transcultural psychiatry · 2025Article
- A community service doctor's experiences of mental healthcare provision in rural Eastern Cape.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2024Article
- Using creativity and the arts to promote mental health in youth living with HIV in South Africa.Southern African journal of HIV medicine · 2024Article
- Promoting braveness in children: A pilot study on the effects of a brief, intensive CBT-based anxiety prevention programme conducted in the South African context.Child care in practice : Northern Ireland journal of multi-disciplinary child care practice · 2024Article
- Validation of a brief screener for broad-spectrum mental and substance-use disorders in South Africa.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2024Article
- "Trajectories of treatment response in a cognitive-behavioral therapy intervention for depression and adherence in persons with HIV in South Africa".Journal of affective disorders · 2023Article
- Mental health implications of suicide rates in South Africa.World journal of clinical cases · 2023Review
- To queue or not to queue: Facility managers and mental health care users' experiences of integrated health care in a rural South African district.The International journal of social psychiatry · 2023Article
- An Ultra-Brief Proxy Measure for Early Mental and Substance Use Disorders and Suicide Risk Case Detection at the Community and Household Level: An Efficient and Feasible Clinical and Population-level Service Needs Screening Tool.Medical research archives · 2023Article
- Primary health care nurses' mental health knowledge and attitudes towards patients and mental health care in a South African metropolitan municipality.BMC nursing · 2023Article
- Psychometric evaluation of the psychosis screening questionnaire in South Africa with attention to overlap between symptoms and normative cultural beliefs.World cultural psychiatry research review : official journal of World Association of Cultural Psychiatry · 2023Article
- Cognitive and Behavioral Contributions to Depression Severity, Quality of Life, and Functioning Among People Living With HIV in South Africa.Behavior therapy · 2023Article
18 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThere is growing recognition that mental health is an important public health issue in South Africa. Yet mental health services remain chronically under-resourced. The aim of this study was to document levels of current public sector mental health service provision in South Africa and compare services across provinces, in relation to current national policy and legislation.
methodsA survey was conducted of public sector mental health service resources and utilisation in South Africa during the 2005 calendar year, using the World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS) Version 2.2.
resultsSouth African policy and legislation both advocate for community-based mental health service provision within a human rights framework. Structures are in place at national level and in all nine provinces to implement these provisions. However, there is wide variation between provinces in the level of mental health service resources and provision. Per 100,000 population, there are 2.8 beds (provincial range 0-7.0) in psychiatric inpatient units in general hospitals, 3.6 beds (0-6.4) in community residential facilities, 18 beds (7.1-39.1) in mental hospitals, and 3.5 beds (0-5.5) in forensic facilities. The total personnel working in mental health facilities are 11.95 per 100,000 population. Of these, 0.28 per 100,000 are psychiatrists, 0.45 other medical doctors (not specialised in psychiatry), 10.08 nurses, 0.32 psychologists, 0.40 social workers, 0.13 occupational therapists, and 0.28 other health or mental health workers.
conclusionsAlthough there have been important developments in South African mental health policy and legislation, there remains widespread inequality between provinces in the resources available for mental health care; a striking absence of reliable, routinely collected data that can be used to plan services and redress current inequalities; the continued dominance of mental hospitals as a mode of service provision; and evidence of substantial unmet need for mental health care. There is an urgent need to address weak policy implementation at provincial level in South Africa.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.