The apparent discrimination by most medical schemes towards people suffering from psychiatric disorders is a cause for concern, the South African Society of Psychiatrists (Sasop) said on Friday.
Sasop president Dr Eugene Allers said this was taking place even though certain acts in the South African constitution clearly stated that no such discrimination be permitted.
Allers made the comments in Johannesburg on Thursday after Sasop presented its White Paper to government. The paper — Addressing Stigma and Possible Discrimination of Patients with Psychiatric Disorders both in State and Private Sectors was handed to government on World Mental Health Day.
Allers said: ”Psychiatry and patients with psychiatric disorders have experienced severe discrimination over the ages.
”In a modern democratic South Africa such discrimination goes against the spirit of transformation in this country. It is also against the constitutional rights of emotionally ill individuals.”
He said psychiatric illness was very common, affecting adults and children of any age and was an illness that did not discriminate.
Nusreen Khan, the national co-ordinator for Reach (Rights, Education and Activism for Consumer Healthcare), a key participant in the drafting of the White Paper, said its main purpose ”is to thwart the growing perception that a psychiatric disorder is
expensive and difficult to treat”.
Khan said this was becoming a self-perpetuating myth and was discouraging sufferers from seeking treatment. ”Sasop and Reach are striving to encourage persons with emotional disabilities to receive the appropriate treatment without being stigmatised.”
About 450-million people suffer from psychological conditions world-wide, placing mental disorders among the leading cause of ill-health globally.
In South Africa, 150 000 people attempt suicide every year — with the suicide rate among children aged between ten and 14 having more than doubled over the last 15 years, Sasop said.
According to the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, psychiatric illness will be the number one cause of disability in the world by the year 2020. – Sapa