{"id":86943,"date":"2017-02-08T22:47:38","date_gmt":"2017-02-08T20:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/south-africas-mental-health-watchdogs-must-be-given-voice-and-teeth-the-conversation\/"},"modified":"2017-02-08T22:47:38","modified_gmt":"2017-02-08T20:47:38","slug":"south-africas-mental-health-watchdogs-must-be-given-voice-and-teeth-the-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-africas-mental-health-watchdogs-must-be-given-voice-and-teeth-the-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s mental health watchdogs must be given voice and teeth | The Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s mental health watchdogs must be given voice and teeth<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Legally mandated oversight bodies should be integral to post-apartheid consultative and cooperative governance.<\/span> www.shutterstock.com<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In February 2017 a report was released about the deaths of multiple mentally ill patients in Gauteng \u2013 South Africa\u2019s richest province. We now know that at least 94 vulnerable mentally ill or disabled South Africans died after effectively being abandoned by those who, by law, had a duty to ensure their safety and well-being. The Health Ombudsman\u2019s report was subtitled: \u201cNo Guns: 94+ Silent Deaths and Still Counting\u201d.<\/p>\n

The scale and depth of the human rights violations will only become clear in the months, perhaps even years, ahead. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s extremely worrying is that there are many other people across the country in equally precarious situations. This will remain the case for as long as South Africa doesn\u2019t have effective oversight structures for the mentally and physically disabled, and the abandoned aged \u2013 especially those who are poor and dependent on others.<\/p>\n

These deaths were the consequence of inappropriate accommodation and treatment, and neglect. If more deaths like these are to be avoided \u2013 and the continuing isolation of thousands of \u201csilenced\u201d people is to end \u2013 South Africa needs to examine its soul very deeply. <\/p>\n

It must also put into practice the laudable intentions of its Constitution by implementing existing legal provisions. South Africa\u2019s laws create oversight and advisory bodies that ought to be active, integral agents of the post-apartheid consultative and cooperative governance ethos. <\/p>\n

The Mental Health Care Act contains many legal checks and balances which have clearly not functioned in practice. If they had, patients wouldn\u2019t have been discharged and dispatched \u2013 sometimes in open trucks \u2013 to unlicensed, unsuitable and underfunded distant facilities. <\/p>\n

By law, every mental health care patient should have an independent watchdog body safeguarding their interests. There\u2019s legal provision for these structures \u2013 but they must be given a voice. And teeth. <\/p>\n

Systems should be in place<\/h2>\n

The Mental Health Care Act of 2002, as amended in 2004, moved mental health care provision out of national government\u2019s hands, into the hands of the provinces. This, as Professor Jonathan Burns wrote in 2008, was driven by the principle that <\/p>\n

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mental health care users have a right to be treated near to their homes and within their communities, as far as possible [and they] have a right to be provided with care, treatment and rehabilitation, with the least possible restriction of their freedom. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Under the act, Mental Health Review Boards were also created to be independent local ombudsmen. <\/p>\n

The act requires the provincial administration to establish at least one review board, or a number of district boards. It also states that these should be provided with the resources to enable them to perform their functions. <\/p>\n

Each board must have a minimum of three members: a licensed health care practitioner; a magistrate, attorney, or advocate; and a \u201cmember of the community concerned\u201d. What, precisely, \u201cthe community concerned\u201d is, is open to interpretation.<\/p>\n

The responsibilities of Mental Health Boards are that they must: <\/p>\n