The Gauteng Health Department is trying to shake off the stigma of Life Esidimeni this Mental Health Awareness month.
On Monday, Gauteng Health MEC Dr Gwen Ramokgopa said focus would continue to be applied to NGOs to ensure that a tragedy like Life Esidimeni does not occur again.
Speaking at Little Eden - a home for patients with mental and intellectual disabilities - she said: “We don't want the memory of NGOs to remain with those who didn’t do well with Life Esidimeni.”
In the Life Esidimeni matter, 144 psychiatric patients died after 1711 of them were moved from Life Esidimeni facilities to unregistered NGOs. They died of hunger, neglect and malnutrition.
Ramokgopa said launching the mental health awareness at Little Eden was part of the department’s healing journey. “The NGOs where our mental health users went were our villains because they were not experienced and they were not adequately supported. As part of the healing process, we thought we must come to an NGO that employs best practice and individualises care for patients.”
One of the long-term residents at Little Eden is Karen de Kock’s sister, Andrea, who has lived there since 1974. Andrea is on the autism spectrum and also has Rubinstein Taybi syndrome.
De Kock, a music therapist, said institutionalising family members was not an easy decision.
“When a family gets a patient admitted to a facility, the decision is always delayed. The decision comes with the guilt, fear, sorrow and grief of losing a family member,” she said.
De Kock said though Little Eden was not affected by the Life Esidimeni catastrophe, she was sad about it.
“That was quite severe. I felt those families’ pain. The difference here is that there is a level of care which I am used to. Our first port of call is to care for people. From a professional and a personal point of view, it was quite hectic,” De Kock said.