Respite care models and practices for persons with intellectual disability: A scoping review.

Background: Families are the primary caregivers for persons with intellectual disability (ID), offering informal support to ensure community living. Ensuring families are adequately supported is key to reduce the financial, physical, mental and social toll which long-standing inadequately supported care giving may evoke. Respite care is such a support service offered to caregivers and care-recipients with ID.

Exploring the unmet needs of adults with cerebral palsy living in urban South Africa.

Purpose: The investigators aimed to understand the unmet needs of adults with cerebral palsy (CP) living in urban South Africa and to ascertain similarities or differences to typically developing (TD) adults in the same community.

Materials And Methods: Participants were interviewed with an adapted version of the Southampton Needs Assessment Questionnaire (SNAQ). Non-parametric statistical analysis was utilised for quantitative data and qualitative data were analysed using free coding to identify themes.

Barriers to the participation of people with psychosocial disability in mental health policy development in South Africa: a qualitative study of perspectives of policy makers, professionals, religious leaders and academics.

Background: This paper outlines stakeholder views on environmental barriers that prevent people who live with psychosocial disability from participating in mental health policy development in South Africa.

Method: Fifty-six semi-structured interviews with national, provincial and local South African mental health stakeholders were conducted between August 2006 and August 2009. Respondents included public sector policy makers, professional regulatory council representatives, and representatives from non-profit organisations (NPOs), disabled people's organisations (DPOs), mental health interest groups, religious organisations, professional associations, universities and research institutions.

South African mental health care service user views on priorities for supporting recovery: implications for policy and service development.

Purpose: The paper documents the views of South African mental health care service users on policy directions and service developments that are required to support their recovery.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with forty service users and service user advocates. A framework analysis approach was used to analyse the qualitative data.

An assessment of mental health policy in Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

Background: Approximately half of the countries in the African Region had a mental health policy by 2005, but little is known about quality of mental health policies in Africa and globally. This paper reports the results of an assessment of the mental health policies of Ghana, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

Methods: The WHO Mental Health Policy Checklist was used to evaluate the most current mental health policy in each country.

Meeting the millennium development goals in Sub-saharan Africa: what about mental health?

Mental health is a crucial public health and development issue in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region where little progress has been made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). In this paper we argue that not only will limited progress in achieving these targets have a significant impact on mental health, but it will be impossible to achieve some of these aspirations in the absence of addressing mental health concerns. We consider the strong relationship of mental health with dimensions of human development represented in the MDGs, including reducing poverty, achieving universal primary education, decreasing child mortality rates, improving maternal health, HIV, environmental factors and improving the lives of those living in informal settlements.

'Mental health is everybody's business': roles for an intersectoral approach in South Africa.

Intersectoral action is increasingly recognized as necessary to address the social determinants of mental health. This study aims to assess South Africa's progress in intersectoral collaboration for mental health, and provide recommendations for intersectoral collaboration, to generate lessons for other low- and middle-income countries. We conducted a survey of the existing mental health system in South Africa using the World Health Organization Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems.

Mental health care user participation in mental health policy development and implementation in South Africa.

This paper describes current support for mental health care user participation in policy development and implementation in South Africa and suggests strategies for improving participation. The World Health Organization (WHO) Mental Health Policy Checklist and WHO Mental Health Legislation Checklist were completed. Between August 2006 and August 2009 96 semi-structured interviews with national, regional and district stakeholders were conducted.

Mental health policy in South Africa: development process and content.

Introduction: Mental health is increasingly acknowledged as a crucial public health issue in South Africa (SA). However, it is not given the priority it deserves on policy agendas in this and many other low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this analysis is to describe the content of mental health policy and the process of its development in SA.

Public sector mental health systems in South Africa: inter-provincial comparisons and policy implications.

Background: There is growing recognition that mental health is an important public health issue in South Africa. Yet mental health services remain chronically under-resourced. The aim of this study was to document levels of current public sector mental health service provision in South Africa and compare services across provinces, in relation to current national policy and legislation.