Question NW1135 to the Minister of Health
18 April 2023 - NW1135
Hlengwa, Ms MD to ask the Minister of Health
Considering that in the second Annual Mental State of the World Report from Sapien Labs, the Republic scored the lowest average score on the mental health wellbeing scale, what plans does his department have in place to (a) join collaborative campaigns such as the #breakingstigma campaign (details furnished) and/or (b) initiate its own mental health campaigns?
Reply:
The report titled, The Mental State of the World in 2022 (third report), from Sapiens Labs, is based on responses from 407,959 across 64 countries. The second report of 2021 has an equally small sample size of 223,087 respondents across 34 countries. The reports do not indicate how many persons responded per country, however, the sample size of these reports represent a very small fraction of the population of the countries from which respondents were sourced. Even if the total number of respondents were from South Africa only, the sample size is still too small and the results of the reports can therefore not be generalized to the entire population of South Africa. We nevertheless provide a response to the honourable member’s questions.
a) The Department has prioritised mental health in view of the burden of diseases associated with mental illnesses. The upstream determinants of mental health cut across responsibilities and mandates of a number of sectors and the NDoH collaborates with other Departments in Government and NGOs such as Higher Health and the SA Federation for Mental Health on a number of aspects related to promoting mental health including activities aimed at combating stigma.
b) Future plans are aimed at expanding prevention, advocacy and stigma combating activities. This will entail working with a wider range of partners in line with the strategies articulated in the National Strategic Plan for Non-Communicable Diseases 2022-2027 and the Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategy 2023-2030.
END.