MHM Magazine

WHAT IS UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE? Universal health coverage (UHC) is a simple concept: everyone, everywhere should be able to access the highest attainable standards of health without suffering financial hardship. The World Health Organisation’s Constitution defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.” Currently, there is a large gap in the coverage of care for mental health conditions in South Africa. It’s estimated that less than 1 in 10 people living with a mental health condition in South Africa receive the care they need. A leading way to tackle this gap is to integrate and expand access to quality, rights-based, evidence-based, culturally-sensitive, and cost-effective mental healthcare into UHC efforts and existing health services. INTEGRATING MENTAL HEALTH INTO UHC When we talk about integrating mental health into UHC we mean: • Including mental health in all relevant health services and interventions across the life course and throughout the continuum of care. This includes health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and in primary, secondary and tertiary care.  • Ensuring that mental health conditions are covered by population-wide financial protection measures, like our annual health budget and the proposed national health insurance (NHI). • Putting mental health care on par with and – where relevant – accompanying physical health care. Mental health care and related services have hardly ever enjoyed the same resourcing as other types of health services in our country. THE NHI BILL AND MENTAL HEALTH The NHI Bill seeks to realise Universal Health Coverage in South Africa. In the Bill’s preamble, we welcomed the reference to mental health within article 12 of the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and People`s Rights. This roots the bill in a human- rights based approach to mental health. We appreciate that there is specific mention to provide school-based services to promote mental health for young people (pg 49; 4.4.4) and, importantly, there is a conditional grant provided to invest in improving the mental health services in the country (pg 58; 8.7) ahead of implementing the NHI. However, as mental health advocates, we have concerns with UNIVERSAL HEALTH COVERAGE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF NHI LEGISLATION FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN SA EDITORIAL Shayni Geffen Project Leader: Advocacy & Awareness SA Federation for Mental Health Issue 4 | 2023 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 1 MHM