Life Esidimeni tragedy shows SA gives economic gain priority over social justice
The Life Esidimeni tragedy, which led to the deaths of 144 mental health patients, caused national outrage and highlighted the neglect of mental healthcare in SA. Following the termination of the contract between the Gauteng health department and the Life Esidimeni Care Centre in October 2015, about 2,000 people were scheduled to be moved out of the care centres to their families, acute psychiatric hospitals or allocated nongovernmental organisations. The motivation was SA’s commitment to the deinstitutionalisation of mental healthcare: the replacement of institutional treatment with community-based care. The Gauteng health department has argued that handing over the care of these patients to communities and NGOs had their needs at heart, allowing them to be reintegrated back into their communities, rather than remain isolated from society in institutional hospitals. However, the health ombudsman’s report into the Life Esidimeni crisis found that little investment was made into adeq...
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