RESULTS
POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION AT NATIONAL LEVEL
National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV, TB and STI 2023 to 2028 where FPD managed to increase the mentions of MH from
12 in the previous NSP to 144 in the new NSP, as well as 35 mentions of the term psychosocial support that did not feature at all in the previous version.
We also managed to get PLHIV with MH lived experience designated as a priority population.
National Mental Health Policy Framework and Strategic Plan 2023 to 2030 where FPD through TA promoted the inclusion
of several game changers including a commitment to rescheduling antidepressant, that are not habit forming, to allow prescription by primary care nurses, formal employment of Registered Counsellors in the Public Sector at primary
care clinic level and a general policy shift from a hospicentric to a community model.
Medical scheme benefits. Excellent progress has been made with the Government Employee Medical Scheme (GEMS) that covers 90% of HCWs who have made depression one of their prescribed minimum
benefits and incorporated mental health into their value-based care team benefit package currently being rolled out across the country that promoted outcome-based care by multidisciplinary teams.
INFORMATION EDUCATION & COMMUNICATION Productions of information and education material. The
project has produced a variety of IEC and uses all the Masiviwe platforms to
distribute the information. To date 28.6 million+ reached through Masiviwe
social media channels in March 2024 – lately reaching about a million per
month.
The Masiviwe website (www.masiviwe.org.za) provides it visitors with a plethora of MH resources, including information on understanding MH, managing emotions, HCW resources, repository of MH content
developed, get help features, and so much more. The site has seen more than 23 000 visits by October 2024.
The 1st SA Mental Health Conference was launched in April
2023 by FPD and became a joint project with the national Department of Health.
This abstract driven scientific conference, under the heading “It is time to
talk”, was attended by 673 delegates, with 167 speaker presentations across 37
sessions, 29 poster presentations and 24 exhibition stands. The conference was
ably Chaired by Professors Olive Shisana and Dan Stein.
TECHNOLOGY
A potential game changer has been our work with Columbia University Psychiatry Department to validate their electronic mental wellness screening tool (e-MW Tool) algorithm
in South Africa, this algorithm allows for rapid screening, diagnosing, and
triaging of MH conditions and make it ideal for outreach field based HCWs.
Validation of the South African version of the mwTool for use in adults has
been completed and the adolescent validation project should be complete in
mid-2024.
The StepWell Saga is the 1st Serious Game for Mental Health in Africa (launched March2024) In an innovative leap
forward, FPD secured a pioneering grant from Grand Challenges Canada, birthing
a landmark achievement in the realm of healthcare: the inception of Africa's
first-ever serious game dedicated to mental health, christened 'The
StepWell Saga – Stronger Together'.
GLOBAL ADVOCACY
Donor funding for mental
health and people living with MH conditions are still extremely limited. As
such FPD actively leverages the massive donor investment in HIV/TB in Africa to
promote MH activities. We also secured support from the Office of the Global
AIDS Coordinator for the integration of MH into HIV/TB programmes in Africa. Leveraging
this policy changes are starting to improve access to care for people with MH
conditions. See Godfrey, C. and Nkengasong, J., 2023. Prioritizing mental
health in the HIV/AIDS response in Africa. New England Journal of
Medicine, 389(7), pp.581-583.
Key Populations status
within the HIV donor programming environment receive dedicated budget
allocation and programmes. FPD fully believes that people with severe mental
health issues meet all the criteria for being designated as Key Populations.
To this end IMHSI team members (Melvyn C Freeman, Milton L Wainberg, Jean D Slabbert, Selaelo Mabela, Gustaaf Wolvaardt)
published a peer reviewed article in the AIDS journal titled 'Persons with severe mental health conditions should be included as a key population in HIV programmes' in August 2022.