ArticleHealth policy and planning2019
Mental health system costs, resources and constraints in South Africa: a national survey.
Article in Health policy and planning, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 158 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
158 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Conceptualisation of Mental Health Recovery by Health Professionals and Students in Southeast Asia: A Qualitative Systematic Review and Meta-Aggregation.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2025Pooled it
- Primary-level worker interventions for the care of people living with mental disorders and distress in low- and middle-income countries.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Peer-led recovery groups for people with psychosis in South Africa (PRIZE): Results of a randomized controlled feasibility trial.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2024Trial
- Effectiveness of abbreviated trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy for South African adolescents: a randomized controlled trial.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2023Trial
- Task Sharing or Task Dumping: Counsellors Experiences of Delivering a Psychosocial Intervention for Mental Health Problems in South Africa.Community mental health journal · 2021Trial
- The economic case for increased investment in the treatment of adolescents with common mental disorders in Colombia and South Africa.Health policy and planning · 2026Article
- "It's There, but Not for Us": Pharmacy Students' Lived Experiences of Mental Health Support at a South African University.Pharmacy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Depression at follow-up and associated social determinants among isiZulu-speaking South Africans: evidence from the National Income Dynamics Study.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Intersecting Vulnerabilities: Depression, Suicidality, and HIV Risk Among Young Mothers in South Africa.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- Beyond treatment non-adherence: A qualitative study of clinicians' perspectives on structural and social determinants of schizophrenia relapse in South Africa.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Examining the length of hospital stay and associated factors in adult patients with schizophrenia.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Clinical utility and psychometric validity of the International Adjustment Disorder Questionnaire in a sample of South African working adults.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2026Article
- Service delivery strategies for perinatal mental health in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2026Review
- Mental health policy interventions in Nigeria: A scoping review of development, implementation and outcomes.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Review
- The MindSKILLZ sport-based mental health promotion intervention for adolescents in Kenya: a mixed methods pilot study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Adolescent readiness for mobile mental health support in Soweto: A mixed-methods study.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Helping to improve demand for mental health services: Reach and adoption of a community mental health education and detection tool by community health workers within routine care in South Africa.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Preparedness of the University of KwaZulu-Natal Occupational Therapy Students and Novice Occupational Therapists for Acute Mental Health Practice: A Qualitative Exploration of Lived Experiences.Occupational therapy international · 2026Article
- Exploring Competencies That Prepare Occupational Therapy Students for Acute Mental Health Practice: A Document Analysis.Occupational therapy international · 2026Article
- Development of a Rule-Based Chatbot for Supporting Family Caregivers After Psychiatric Hospital Discharge: An Exploratory Qualitative Study in Indonesia.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2026Article
98 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The inclusion of mental health in the Sustainable Development Goals represents a global commitment to include mental health among the highest health and development priorities for investment. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as South Africa, contemplating mental health system scale-up embedded into wider universal health coverage-related health system transformations, require detailed and locally derived estimates on existing mental health system resources and constraints. The absence of these data has limited scale-up efforts to address the burden of mental disorders in most LMICs. We conducted a national survey to quantify public expenditure on mental health and evaluate the constraints of the South African mental health system. The study found that South Africa's public mental health expenditure in the 2016/17 financial year was USD615.3 million, representing 5.0% of the total public health budget (provincial range: 2.1-7.7% of provincial health budgets) and USD13.3 per capita uninsured. Inpatient care represented 86% of mental healthcare expenditure, with nearly half of total mental health spending occurring at the psychiatric hospital-level. Almost one-quarter of mental health inpatients are readmitted to hospital within 3 months of a previous discharge, costing the public health system an estimated USD112 million. Crude estimates indicate that only 0.89% and 7.35% of the uninsured population requiring care received some form of public inpatient and outpatient mental healthcare, during the study period. Further, mental health human resource availability, infrastructure and medication supply are significant constraints to the realization of the country's progressive mental health legislation. For the first time, this study offers a nationally representative reflection of the state of mental health spending and elucidates inefficiencies and constraints emanating from existing mental health investments in South Africa. With this information at hand, the government now has a baseline for which a rational process to planning for system reforms can be initiated.
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