MALAIKA MAHLATSI| Media has the power to educate public about mental health

The South African government has declared the month of October as Mental Health Awareness Month. The objective of this is to educate the public about mental health as well as to reduce the stigma and discrimination that people with mental illnesses are subjected to.

Over the past two-and-a-half weeks, I have been paying close attention to the nature of conversations that are happening in the media around Mental Health Awareness Month. On one hand, I have been left debilitated by the minimal and at times completely non-existent acknowledgement of this month and of the conversations that are not happening which the media in particular should be driving.

On the other hand, I have had to appreciate that while the media is the mirror we hold up to society, it is also simultaneously a microcosm of that society. It shapes but is also shaped by society. In a society where mental health is misunderstood and disregarded, it stands to reason that the media would not see it as a public interest issue that deserves sustained discourse. This is deeply unfortunate given that our country is in the throes of a mental health epidemic.

According to the Annual Mental State of the World report from Sapien Labs, published in 2022, SA ranks as one of the worst countries with regard to mental health, scoring the lowest average score on the mental health wellbeing scale. The rate of distressed or struggling individuals on the scale increased by 8% between 2020 and 2021, with rates of 28.5% and 36%, respectively.

This study was corroborated by a study conducted by Wits/Medical Research Council Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit (DPHRU) titled "The prevalence of probable depression and probable anxiety and the associations with adverse childhood experiences and socio-demographics: A National Survey in SA", according to which more than a quarter of South Africans suffer from probable depression. Some provinces have higher levels. Both studies identify biological, socio-economic, environmental and geographic factors as being major contributors to mental health problems in our country, with the DPHRU study focusing specifically on adverse childhood trauma.

One of the biggest indicators of the mental health epidemic in SA is the rate of suicide. SA is ranked number 10 on the list of countries with the most suicides. Last year, 13,774 suicides were reported in the country, with men accounting for 10,861 of these deaths and women accounting for 2,913. This translates to a rate of 37.6 per 100,000 population for men and 9.8 per 100,000 for women. The average rate is 23.7 suicides per 100,000 people.

While not every person with mental illness dies by suicide, people who die by suicide are generally have some form of mental illness. And so, while on the surface it may appear that men are battling more mental illnesses than women, in reality, women are more likely to attempt suicide than men. The suicide and mental health epidemic has no gender. It is for this reason that all South Africans must take it seriously.

South African media has an important role to play in educating and informing the public about mental illness and the resources that are available to help them. Only a quarter of those afflicted with mental illness receive treatment.

This is deeply concerning because untreated mental illness causes additional problems for individuals, their families and communities at large. The high levels of violence and crime in our country have a direct link to untreated mental pathologies rooted in childhood and adulthood traumas that include poverty and disenfranchisement.

A responsible media must use its power and authority to ensure that the right information reaches those who need it most, and that necessary conversations are had in society. South Africans must know that they do not have to struggle in silence. More than this, society needs to understand that it is not mental illness that we must be ashamed of but the stigma and bias that shames us all.