Professionals are being asked to look critically at the discipline’s ability to respond to South Africa’s context.
There are too few psychiatrists, so a foundation is using a Canadian model to rehabilitate people.
Clinical depression is tough to experience and understand. It consists of a wide variety of mood disorders, which impact lives differently.
The book is an entry to the world of a psychiatric patient on the effects of her medication, the flashbacks and the loneliness.
Refugees can flee their countries, but they can’t escape the trauma of war.
Nicola Plastow looks at some of the settings in which African drumming has been used to improve mental health.
No image available
/ 14 January 2016
Depression among the elderly is largely overlooked, but exercise can help to counter it.
No image available
/ 12 November 2015
The high cost of treatment makes mental healthcare inaccessible to those using public health services.
A UCT study says counselling is needed to keep tuberculosis sufferers on treatment, without which they risk developing more dangerous forms of TB.
Instead of the care she sought, a vulnerable patient found further distress in a PE hospital.
The country has a high suicide rate, psychiatric illnesses are on the rise and stress has become normalised.
Patients are subject to wild mood swings and costly spending sprees,but they can be treated with the right medicine – and a lot of money.
Telling people that they must keep going is as helpful as "put some Dettol and cotton wool on that gunshot wound – it will heal right up".
No image available
/ 8 September 2014
Around a fifth of South Africans suffer from a mental disorder – but 75% don’t receive the care they need.
Getting help with mental health problems could ease its challenges in the future.
Treading paths unknown to your parents could have profound impacts on your mental health.
The condition is widely misunderstood but it can be treated successfully with the right medication.
Where traditional beliefs are more real than textbooks, treating mental illness is a balancing act for sangomas and medical doctors alike.
A former cokehead writes about the challenges of maintaining an identity as a recovering addict.
It’s high time we faced up to the fact that mental illness is commonplace and no more shameful than physical illness.
The report about Ikhaya Loxolo, a home for the mentally disabled in the Eastern Cape, has sparked a dramatic response from government officials.
Will local facial hair campaigners be able to raise more than last year’s R7-million for men’s health issues?
No image available
/ 22 November 2013
Sihle Batiya’s luckier than most – but the odds are stacked against kids with Down’s syndrome in the Eastern Cape.
South Africa is failing to implement its mental and physical disability laws effectively despite government observing disability month this November.
Taking care of disabled children takes a special kind of person. But caregivers at centres such as Eyethu are not receiving the training they need.
Warders at the Mangaung Correctional Centre have allegedly meted out brutal and illegal punishments to Mangaung inmates.
Forced anti-psychotics and shock therapy are par for the course at the correctional facility.
LSD may be classed as an illegal narcotic by the SAPS, but a recent study has shown its effects might be more helpful than harmful.
Rhyme, rhythm and wit are making life bearable for a group of depression sufferers, writes Pete Cashmore.
The health department could face litigation for not taking adequate interim measures to care for psychiatric patients.
Depression is a caustic mixture of physiological symptoms, negative thought patterns and maladaptive behaviours.
South Africans’ right to proper treatment is under threat and holds long-term implications, writes Zane Wilson.