Published 8 July 2022
We have a problem: The regular snap surveys we do amongst our colleagues shows that common mental health problems are prevalent amongst FPD employees. We are not alone; the whole world is experiencing a mental health pandemic. The Coronavirus pandemic has had a massive detrimental impact on mental health. Across the world increases in anxiety, depression, PTSD, substance use, and suicide have been reported. Multiple studies in 2020 report that prevalence of these conditions are three to seven times higher than pre-COVID rates.
Mental health issues amongst people living with HIV (PLHIV), a key constituency that FPD serves, was already high before the pandemic and will also have increased as during the Coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has had also significantly impacted on the mental health of health care workers, which was already fragile before COVID-19 made an appearance. A pre-pandemic study of nurses providing HIV service in South Africa found that 33% experienced depression while 66% of those were borderline for extreme depression while burnout was estimated to be at between 40 to 80%.
What are we doing: Internally FPD is busy deploying a mental health resilience programme for all employees. While our ability to support the communities we work in has just received a substantial boost through a new five year grant we received from CDC to implement a programme that will focus on:
Over the next five years we will be working to decreased morbidity and mortality of PLHIV affected with mental health issues and increased wellbeing of health care workers facing stressful working conditions.
What can you do? – although lack of access to care is a major factor hampering access to mental health care, other major factors are stigma and self-stigma. Stigma is when we hold negative views towards people living with mental health disorders. Unfortunately, this is still very common in our society and leads to discrimination. Self-stigma evolves out of this societal prejudice and as a result when we are facing mental health challenges, we are often ashamed to admit we have a problem and seek the care we need.
Given that mental health will be a major focus of FPDs future work we all need to confront any stigma and/or self-stigma we may harbour or face. If you have a mental health issue or you are concerned you may have one – get treatment. Treatment can provide relief by identifying what's wrong and reducing symptoms that interfere with your work and personal life. Unfortunately, we live in a society that often tells us that acknowledging the stress and anxiety of daily life is a sign of weakness or that we should be able to control it without help. This is a nonsensical view that ignoring medical conditions do not make them go away. So, reach out to people you trust for the compassion, support and understanding you need.
We all have an obligation to speak out against stigma, not only will this give others the courage to face up to stigma it will also let them know that you are a person that cares. Most importantly we need to educate ourselves and others about mental illness.
Dr. Gustaaf Wolvaardt
MD: Foundation for professional Development