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Assembly passes Mental Healthcare Bill
SAPA
2001-11-01

THE Mental Healthcare Bill will significantly change the lives of people with mental disabilities and help improve South Africa's mental health status, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday. Introducing debate on the measure in the National Assembly, Tshabalala-Msimang said she was confident it captured all the main recommendations of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) 2001 world mental health report.

The Mental Healthcare Bill will significantly change the lives of people with mental disabilities and help improve South Africa's mental health status, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Tuesday.

Introducing debate on the measure in the National Assembly, Tshabalala-Msimang said she was confident it captured all the main recommendations of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) 2001 world mental health report.

The primary objectives of this bill are, firstly, to ensure that appropriate care, treatment and rehabilitation are provided at all levels of the health service.

Our emphasis has changed fundamentally from the custodial approach of the past to one that encourages the community care of people needing mental health services.

We have taken the view that, wherever possible, mental health services should be integrated into general healthcare, she said.

A second major objective was to safeguard the rights of people with mental disabilities.

From a rights perspective, this bill is somewhat complex because we have to balance two sets of rights.

On the one hand, we have to ensure the protection of people with mental disabilities, but we also have to protect the rights of the public in instances where their safety may be compromised by a person with mental disability.

I believe the required balancing of rights is successfully achieved in this legislation, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

Speaking in support of the bill, the Democratic Alliance's Sandy Kalyan said the bill was long overdue.

Mental health had acquired the label of being the poor relative of the health services in South Africa.

One of the main reasons for this has been that mental illness has been poorly understood and that the domain of care lay with highly specialised individuals.

Mental health should be integral to a generic health service. While the bill was welcomed, there were some areas needing attention.

Among other things, psychiatric facilities and care and rehabilitation centres had to be upgraded and made user friendly.

Some of them are so neglected and look like prisons.

A national post-discharge support programme also needed to be implemented.

Patients discharged from a psychiatric institution, where all their choices were made for them, into a community where they can live as free agents, are vulnerable and in need of ongoing support to ensure successful transition, Kalyan said.

Several speakers from the African National Congress lauded the bill as significantly different from the old Mental Health Act, which it replaces.

The old act had been discriminatory, abusive, overly punitive and outdated.

In contrast, the new bill was humane and compassionate, they said.

The bill also received the support of other parties in the House and was passed without dissent.

It will now go to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.

SAPA, 30 October 2001

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