DURBAN - KWAZULU-NATAL has seen a huge increase in the number of doctors and nurses undergoing psychiatric treatment while trying to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, say local experts.
Professor Bonga Chiliza, president of the Society for Psychiatry, said many doctors and nurses were anxious, traumatised and seeing psychiatrists.
“There is a huge increase in the number of people who now seek psychiatric help. Most of them are dealing with complicated grief, where you find they have not been able to do the usual things. Some of them have been unable to bury their loved ones, because they, themselves, were hospitalised,” he said.
Chiliza said that during the first three months of the lockdown, most psychiatric patients relapsed because they were scared of contracting Covid-19.
“That had a huge impact on our facilities, as most patients were admitted with worse conditions, because their medication was finished.”
Job losses, said Chiliza, had also left many people very depressed.
He also raised concerns about an increase in a number of adolescents who were seeking psychiatric help.
“We are worried about the school-going kids, mostly adolescents. A number of them are becoming anxious because of online learning. Before lockdown, they used to keep themselves busy by seeing friends, getting help from peers, and participating in sports.”
He called on the government to increase a number of community-based, outpatient psychiatric services.
Psychiatrist Dr Ismail Moola echoed Chiliza’s sentiments.
“There is a huge backlog. We have a waiting period of about three weeks to a month for patients who need psychiatric services. Most of them are people who had not grieved the loss of their loved ones due to Covid-19.”
Over the years, he said, mental health care had been neglected and the focus was mainly on physical health.
“Mental health affects everybody, even us as doctors and other health-care staff are not immune to it. Doctors are losing their colleagues, patients, family members and relatives. This has a huge impact on mental health,” said Moola.
Psychologist Dr Tholinhlanhla Dlamini-Ngcoya agreed there was a huge increase in the number of people who needed mental health-care services.
“The demand is very high, but some people cannot afford the services due to the fact that they have lost their jobs. Covid-19 has had an impact on their mental health-care state.”
Despite the increase, she noted, there was still a fear of going to therapy, especially in the black community, because of “the way we were raised”.
“Some wait until they have panic attacks, and others even experience seizures. Most people, especially men, would rather go to medical doctors rather than attend to their state of mental health,” said Dlamini-Ngcoya.
She said there was a need for more psycho-education on mental health-care awareness, to remove the stigma among black communities.
The provincial Department of Health had not responded to questions by publication deadline.
Social Development Department provincial spokesperson Mhlaba Memela said the 2021/2022 annual budget allocation to the NPOs providing community-based and residential care services amounted to R3.9 billion.
“The department is in partnership with 53 protective workshops, which provide community-based services to the physically and intellectually challenged service users, and 19 residential facilities for persons with disabilities – providing 24-hour care to physically and intellectually-challenged individuals,” he said.
Memela said the youth at these department-supported facilities were estimated to number between 500 and 1 000.
He said the department experienced challenges of poor financial management of departmental funding allocated to the organisations.
“There is also slow progress in the implementation of the turnaround plans on the findings and recommendations made during monitoring visits,” said Memela.
He added that there were issues in the provision of non-market-related salaries for various categories of NPO staff, and the withdrawal of financial support by sponsors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Daily News