Language:

Mental health system costs, resources and constraints in South Africa: a national survey

Health policy and planning, 2019-11, Vol.34 (9), p.706-719 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 2019 ;The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. ;ISSN: 0268-1080 ;EISSN: 1460-2237 ;DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czz085 ;PMID: 31544948

Full text available

Citations Cited by

Actions
1. Add to My Research
2. Remove from My Research
3. E-mail
4. Print
5. Permalink
6. Citation
7. EasyBib
8. EndNote
9. RefWorks
10. Delicious
11. Export RIS
12. Export BibTeX

Title:
Mental health system costs, resources and constraints in South Africa: a national survey
Author: Docrat, Sumaiyah ; Besada, Donela ; Cleary, Susan ; Daviaud, Emmanuelle ; Lund, Crick
Subjects: Budgets ; Costing ; Discharge ; Drugs ; Editor's Choice ; Embedded systems ; Expenditures ; First time ; Government spending ; Health care ; Health care expenditures ; Health Expenditures - statistics & numerical data ; Health Resources - statistics & numerical data ; Health services ; Hospitalization - economics ; Hospitalization - statistics & numerical data ; Human resources ; Humans ; Infrastructure ; Inpatient care ; Investments ; Legislation ; Medically Uninsured - statistics & numerical data ; Mental disorders ; Mental Disorders - economics ; Mental health ; Mental health services ; Original ; Patient Readmission - economics ; Patient Readmission - statistics & numerical data ; Polls & surveys ; Public finance ; Public health ; Realization ; Resource availability ; South Africa ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sustainable development ; Uninsured people
Is Part Of: Health policy and planning, 2019-11, Vol.34 (9), p.706-719
Description: Abstract The inclusion of mental health in the Sustainable Development Goals represents a global commitment to include mental health among the highest health and development priorities for investment. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), such as South Africa, contemplating mental health system scale-up embedded into wider universal health coverage-related health system transformations, require detailed and locally derived estimates on existing mental health system resources and constraints. The absence of these data has limited scale-up efforts to address the burden of mental disorders in most LMICs. We conducted a national survey to quantify public expenditure on mental health and evaluate the constraints of the South African mental health system. The study found that South Africa’s public mental health expenditure in the 2016/17 financial year was USD615.3 million, representing 5.0% of the total public health budget (provincial range: 2.1–7.7% of provincial health budgets) and USD13.3 per capita uninsured. Inpatient care represented 86% of mental healthcare expenditure, with nearly half of total mental health spending occurring at the psychiatric hospital-level. Almost one-quarter of mental health inpatients are readmitted to hospital within 3 months of a previous discharge, costing the public health system an estimated USD112 million. Crude estimates indicate that only 0.89% and 7.35% of the uninsured population requiring care received some form of public inpatient and outpatient mental healthcare, during the study period. Further, mental health human resource availability, infrastructure and medication supply are significant constraints to the realization of the country’s progressive mental health legislation. For the first time, this study offers a nationally representative reflection of the state of mental health spending and elucidates inefficiencies and constraints emanating from existing mental health investments in South Africa. With this information at hand, the government now has a baseline for which a rational process to planning for system reforms can be initiated.
Publisher: England: Oxford University Press
Language: English
Identifier: ISSN: 0268-1080
EISSN: 1460-2237
DOI: 10.1093/heapol/czz085
PMID: 31544948
Source: Open Access: PubMed Central
Geneva Foundation Free Medical Journals at publisher websites
MEDLINE
Open Access: Oxford University Press Open Journals

Back to results list


INSPIRE LIBRARY - TON DUC THANG UNIVERSITY	(84-028) 37 755 057	Feedback
19 Nguyen Huu Tho St. Dist.7, HCM	thuvien@tdtu.edu.vn	Feedback

Mental health system costs, resources and constraints in South Africa: a national survey

Searching Remote Databases, Please Wait