Mental Health in An Unequal World: The South African Experience

Abstract

The current situation of mental health in South Africa is a cause for serious concern and urgent action is needed. Clearly, mental health is not  prioritised in South Africa which breeds a band demoralised mental health care users. The theme for 2021 world mental health day is “mental health  in an unequal world”. The World Federation for Mental Health has encouraged researchers to share knowledge about mental health  inequality and suggest ways how this inequality may be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the 2021 world mental health  day theme “mental health in an unequal world: the South African experience” The North-West University online databases namely: African Journal  (Previously known as SAePublications), Science Direct and Google Scholar were used to search relevant data using the following keywords:  psychiatry, mental health, unequal world and South Africa. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The themes addressed in this paper include  South African mental health laws, access to mental health care, treatment and rehabilitation services, lack of mental health directorate, lack of  support for Mental Health Review Boards and lack or insufficient budget for mental health services. Finally, the paper recommends ways in which  the inequalities experienced by the Mental Health Care Users in South Africa may be addressed.