Question NW1799 to the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture (a)
01 June 2023 - NW1799
Chirwa, Ms NN to ask the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture (a)
(a). Which recent steps of intervention has he taken to provide artists with (i) mental health support and (ii) support in respect of the demands of the industry at different levels such as community-based, academic, and mainstream media and (b)(i) what programmes have been created by his department specifically to address the peculiar health needs of artists, (ii) how accessible are the programmes and (iii) what is he doing to ensure that plans are devised to make the programmes accessible?
Reply:
(a)(i)(ii). After piloting the Wellness Program for 3 years; the Department has through a tender process appointed a service provider to implement this piloted Wellness Support Programme for Artists and Athletes. The Wellness Support Programme includes the following deliverables:
- Selection of participants and placement of services (for National Accessibility)
- 24-hour Psychosocial Wellbeing Support Programme Counselling (for 24-hour access and counselling)
- Individual Wellbeing Audit and Capacity Assessment (for individual GAP assessment)
- Wellbeing Support Programme Marketing and Communication (for Awareness and Mobilisation of Participants and Stakeholders)
- Artists and Stakeholder Engagement (for Industry-wise-counsel demands)
- Health Risk Assessment (for Medical Health)
- Close Support Interventions (to close the identified Gaps and a sustainable Support Network)
(a)(i)(ii)(iii). The reference to the deliverables encompasses the integration of the holistic well-being of the participants, according to the recognised and trademarked wellbeing model. The programme will be rolled out nationally into all nine provinces to ensure accessibility. This will be done through a data-free enabled mobile application that will be available to participants.
There will also be in-person engagements with the service provider promoting the programme at selected sites.