SAFMH Deputy Director, Leon de Beer, recently penned an opinion piece for Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism.
In the article he outlines why the Life Esidimeni tragedy should have spurred urgent action to make mental health care in South Africa more humane and argues that any attempts to act seem to have been frozen.
The move to community-based mental healthcare is what government officials involved in the Life Esidimeni tragedy in 2015 claimed to have done, but which had gone horribly wrong because of corruption and political interference and a badly planned rush to save money. The result was a national tragedy that claimed 144 lives — another 44 people have never been found.
