BuaNews (Tshwane)
Gabi Khumalo
17 July 2008
Pretoria — In a drive to promote healthy lifestyles, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Directorate will intensify its mental health promotion and mental illness prevention approach during the current financial year.
The month of July has been declared Mental Health Awareness Month with the objective of not only educating the public about mental health but also to reduce the stigma and discrimination that people with mental illness are often subjected to.
It is estimated that mental disorders comprise 12 percent of the Global Burden of Diseases and this continues to increase.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), between 10 and 20 percent of children worldwide have one mental or behavioural problem.
It is estimated that five of the ten leading causes of disability and premature deaths worldwide are psychiatric conditions for ages between 14 and 45.
"About 450 million people worldwide are estimated to be suffering from neuron-psychiatric conditions and also estimated that more than 24.3 million people worldwide currently have dementia and 60 percent of people with dementia live in developing countries," said the WHO.
The neuro-psychiatric conditions include unipolar depressive disorders, bipolar affective disorders, schizophrenia, epilepsy, alcohol and selected drug use disorders, alzheimers and other dementias, panic disorder and primary insomnia.
Department of Health spokesperson, Sibani Mngadi, said that Mental Health Care Act (MHCA) No 17 of 2002 promulgated on 15 December 2004 is human-rights oriented and brought a new approach to mental health care and service delivery in the country.
He noted that the implementation of the new Mental Health Care Act had been slow and there was still a tendency towards practicing the dehumanising and custodial type of care for mental health care users.
"The overall health and wellbeing of a person is closely allied to his or her mental state and a healthy mental attitude is a vital component in the make-up of a healthy individual," Mr Mngadi said.
Studies indicate that psychiatric disorders are among the leading causes of disabilities worldwide and are more common than cancer, diabetes or heart diseases.
It is also reported that one in every four person will be affected by a mental disorder at some stage in life.
The studies further revealed that there is a strong link between the protection of basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of people and their mental health.
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