Stigma and Mental Health in South Africa †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Stigma and Mental Health in South Africa. Answer: Stigma Stigma and discrimination have been linked with some diseases and hence form part of global public health concerns. Treatment stigma leads to barriers to sick people that hinders them from getting access to health care and hence the lack of compliance (Clement et al., 2015). Stigma leads to problems related to ignorance and issues linked to knowledge and attitude. Stigma exists in two forms: the self and public stigma. These types of stigma are related to each such that one can lead to the other. However, the various types of stigma have a different effect on people with health problems. For instance, people who have mental illnesses suffer to go through psychological and social disturbances due to psychiatric stigma. According to Hatzenbuehler et al., 2013, stigma leads to low self-esteem, social isolation, and marginalization of the sick people in the society. In this case, such people cannot get employment opportunities, social support services, houses, and security. These problem s make it difficult for the sick people to seek health care. This situation becomes worse when health stigma is coupled to inequalities in resource allocation and poor access to health care services (Kakuma et al., 2010). The term stigma was first used by the Greeks to refer to the slaves who had marks on their body to identify them. It means that there is something bad about a particular person and hence it is a social attitude which is used towards mental illnesses. In its capacity, stigma is a social disgrace and it discredits a person. It is also and indicates a discrepancy that exists in the virtual social identity of a person in relation to their actual social identity (Lund et al., 2010). When stigma discredits the abilities of a person, then they can make an assumption concerning the persons' abilities leading to some sorts of discrimination. The stigmatized person is dehumanized and their status is reduced in terms of the social values such that they are viewed to be having flaws and hence they have less average as compared to other members of the society. Resources for mental illnesses The services offered for the mental illnesses are inadequate all over the world. This is because as progress is made in improving services for other diseases in health care, no progress is made for mental illnesses (Egbe et al., 2014). There are some vices like prejudice, stigma, and ignorance against this category of patients which has led to widespread inequality in terms of mental health care resources. The problem is worse especially from the low and medium income countries where resources for mental illness are neglected. In most of the psychiatric hospitals, the hospitals are unsuitable for use by the patients. Mental health in South Africa South Africa is categorized as a middle-income nation with approximately 47 million people. However, the country has several socioeconomic risk factors which can cause mental illnesses and other forms of disability (Burns, 2014). Being the epicenter of HIV disease in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa has the highest prevalence rate of this disease. High rates of HIV are associated with a high number of psychiatric disorders such as anxiety, dementia, depression and psychosis. This leads to high mortality resulting from HIV leaving many children orphaned and as heads of homes. As a result, there are high levels of poverty, unemployment, inequality, violence, trauma and poverty, which are risk factors for the development of mental illnesses (Cluver and Orkin, 2009). This causes a high burden of mental illnesses and other forms of disabilities in the society. South Africa is a signatory t the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of Persons with disabilities. The country is also commi tted to a domestic treaty for preserving the rights of people who have mental disabilities. This is officiated in an act, the Mental Health Care Act 2002. Based on this legislation, South Africa is committed to compulsory reporting of abuses, protection of property and admission of mentally ill persons. Moreover, the Mental Health Care in South Africa provided for a decentralized provision of health care from the large psychiatric centers to the offering of community-based mental health services. However, this legislation has not been properly implemented because there was no proper funding to enable the training of personnel, provision of facilities at community care centers. This has led to a high number of chronic issues throughout South Africa on the basis of the provision of treatment and rehabilitation of people suffering from mental illnesses. Stigma and mental illnesses Due to disparities in wealth ownership and access to care to the mentally ill people in South Africa, the social and health systems have been paralyzed. The mental health disorders are sometimes associated with deaths arising from committing suicide, and low rate of life expectancy. In other cases, this class of paper may undergo individual or collective suffering moments. As Williams et al., (2008) argues, stigma linked to mental illnesses is because such people are less productive, less socially and physically activity and their increased dependence on their families for care. Reducing the cases of stigma is thus an important step in improving the lives of the mentally ill people. For instance, some stereotypes used by the public portray the mentally ill people to be violent, dependent, unstable psychologically, dangerous and unfit to get married. These stereotypes do not consider the severity or the level of recovery that the mental illness patients go through. Thus this stigmatiz ation causes a spoiled to them. Bearing in mind the stigma that the mentally ill people go through in the society, it is crucial that the health care centers where these patients seek treatment from refrain from judging them. This is because the manner in which the health care providers treat the mentally ill patients determines their personal and situational beliefs as well as personal attitudes that they develop towards the society. This can create a conceptualization of the practical practices with which the community views and treats the mentally ill persons. In most cases, the health care personnel feel afraid to handle the stigma which the people with mental illnesses go through. However, South Africa has made a step ahead and decentralized the mental illness care into the primary health care exposes many health care workers to giving care to mental illness people (Vorster et al., 2000). Initially, there was a stigma among the health care providers towards the people with mental illnesses. For instance, the h ealth care workers had less optimism in making the prognosis for people with mental illnesses. It is, therefore, important for policies to be implemented which ensure that the health care professionals do not stigmatize the people with mental illnesses. This will help in shaping a positive health care outcome among these patients and reduce mortalities that could arise from mental illnesses (World Health Organization. Dept. of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, 2005). The health care system in South Africa is organized in a way that it can provide acute health care and inequities between the public and private health care centers. For this disease burden, South Africa has a chronic epidemic which needs to be addressed by the health care professionals by making reorganizations in the integrated health care in managing mental illnesses. As it is, South Africa has a large treatment gap among the mental treatments which is largely caused by the health care professionals who stigmatize the people with mental illnesses (Berg, 2003). As measures are being put in providing access to h ealth care by these people, it is crucial that measures are also put in place to address the issue concerning stigmatization of people with mental illnesses in South Africa. This will result in an increased uptake of mental illness treatment alongside the widespread acceptability of the programs and services. This is in the process of health care re-organization that the South African health care system is going through. For proper measures to be put in place to help the people with mental illnesses, it is important for the policy makers to have a clear understanding of the stigma that these patients go through. Therefore most interventions for people with mental illnesses should be aimed at reducing the social stigma. According to Saxena et al., (2007), the psychiatric stigma originates from several reasons which in most cases are from beliefs concerning mental disorders. Many of such misconceptions as well as traditional beliefs cause stigmatization in their own capacity. Other beliefs that cause stigma make these mentally ill people delay in seeking treatment. For instance, mental illness as a deliberate act is a stigma which originates from the members of the community which makes them believe that the mentally ill people pretend to be sick (Mayosi et al., 2009). In this case, the community beliefs that the mentally ill people act from the symptoms of mental illnesses and this perception makes th e mentally ill people delay in getting medical help from health care facilities. Most of the Black South African has a stigma that the mentally ill people are bewitched. This belief makes the families of such patients opt to seek help from traditional healers instead of modern health care therapeutics. The origins of stigma are on the basis of the caveats in traditional beliefs and knowledge concerning the causes of mental illnesses which lead to abuse of human rights among the mental illness people (Bockting et al., 2013). As a result, the stigmatization of the people with mental illnesses emanates from a combination of several problems such as behavior, knowledge, and attitudes. References Berg, A., 2003. Ancestor reverence and mental health in South Africa. Transcultural Psychiatry, 40(2), pp.194-207. Bockting, W.O., Miner, M.H., Swinburne Romine, R.E., Hamilton, A. and Coleman, E., 2013. Stigma, mental health, and resilience in an online sample of the US transgender population. American journal of public health, 103(5), pp.943-951. Burns, J.K., 2011. The mental health gap in South Africa: A human rights issue. The Equal Rights Review, 6(99), pp.99-113. Clement, S., Schauman, O., Graham, T., Maggioni, F., Evans-Lacko, S., Bezborodovs, N., Morgan, C., Rsch, N., Brown, J.S.L. and Thornicroft, G., 2015. What is the impact of mental health-related stigma on help-seeking? A systematic review of quantitative and qualitative studies. Psychological medicine, 45(1), pp.11-27. Cluver, L. and Orkin, M., 2009. Cumulative risk and AIDS-orphanhood: Interactions of stigma, bullying and poverty on child mental health in South Africa. Social science medicine, 69(8), pp.1186-1193. Egbe, C.O., Brooke-Sumner, C., Kathree, T., Selohilwe, O., Thornicroft, G. and Petersen, I., 2014. Psychiatric stigma and discrimination in South Africa: Perspectives from key stakeholders. BMC psychiatry, 14(1), p.191. Hatzenbuehler, M.L., Phelan, J.C. and Link, B.G., 2013. Stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities. American journal of public health, 103(5), pp.813-821. Kakuma, R., Kleintjes, S., Lund, C., Drew, N., Green, A. and Flisher, A.J., 2010. Mental Health Stigma: what is being done to raise awareness and reduce stigma in South Africa?: original article. African Journal of Psychiatry, 13(2), pp.116-124. Lund, C., Kleintjes, S., Kakuma, R., Flisher, A.J. and MHaPP Research Programme Consortium, 2010. Public sector mental health systems in South Africa: inter-provincial comparisons and policy implications. Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 45(3), pp.393-404. Mayosi, B.M., Lawn, J.E., Van Niekerk, A., Bradshaw, D., Karim, S.S.A., Coovadia, H.M. and Lancet South Africa team, 2012. Health in South Africa: changes and challenges since 2009. The Lancet, 380(9858), pp.2029-2043. Saxena, S., Thornicroft, G., Knapp, M. and Whiteford, H., 2007. Resources for mental health: scarcity, inequity, and inefficiency. The lancet, 370(9590), pp.878-889. Vorster, H.H., Venter, C.S., Kruger, H.S., Kruger, A., Malan, N.T., Wissing, M.P., De Ridder, J.H., Veldman, F.J., Steyn, H.S., Margetts, B.M. and MacIntyre, U., 2000. The impact of urbanization on physical, physiological and mental health of Africans in the North West Province of South Africa: the THUSA study. South African Journal of Science, 96. Williams, D.R., Herman, A., Stein, D.J., Heeringa, S.G., Jackson, P.B., Moomal, H. and Kessler, R.C., 2008. Twelve-month mental disorders in South Africa: prevalence, service use and demographic correlates in the population-based South African Stress and Health Study. Psychological medicine, 38(02), pp.211-220. World Health Organization. Dept. of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, 2005. Mental health atlas 2005. World Health Organization.