The South African Depression and Anxiety Group’s (SADAG) vital crisis helpline, which assists thousands of people struggling with mental health issues, needs R180 000 for its operational costs this month, and is pleading for help, its appeal coinciding with World Suicide Prevention Day this week (Wednesday).
The NGO has been forced to launch a Back-a-Buddy online campaign to raise the money it needs for September, TimesLIVE reports.
The mental health advocate has been providing free telephone counselling, among other services, to South Africans in distress for 31 years, its call centre – taking some 2 500 calls a day, one in three of which is suicide related – being a vital support source for thousands of people, especially those in remote areas without access to care.
Most of the calls come through toll-free helplines, a 24-hour service for vulnerable people.
Cassey Chambers, operations director, told TimesLIVE that without immediate funding, the infrastructure is at risk.
“South Africa faces great mental health challenges, with a recent report highlighting that one in three people may suffer from mild to severe symptoms of depression,” she said.
“The high stigma and critical shortage of public sector resources leave organisations like SADAG to fill a massive gap.
“If we can do whatever we can to prevent people from taking their own lives… especially those who are reaching out to us… We don’t want something like a telephone bill to prohibit us.”
The organisation provides free telephone counselling, support groups, brochures and vital information, especially talks, on depression, anxiety, grief, bipolar disorder and suicide prevention. This need is more critical than ever, with more than 14 000 deaths from suicide annually, making it the third leading cause of death among young people aged 15-29.
A 2024 Discovery Life claims experience report found suicide made up 35% of all unnatural death claims among its members, exceeding the 23% of deaths caused by vehicle accidents and 17% by violent crime.
Among those aged between 41 and 60, 45% of unnatural claims were due to suicide.
The insurer also reported a 62% rise in suicide-related claims among individuals over 50 compared with the five-year average.
“The biggest thing is that as the suicide crisis helpline, a lot of our effort and time is focused on these calls and helping people,” said Chambers. “We hear every day from people who are really struggling, dealing with complex issues that affect their day-to-day functioning and lives.”
The one thing that is overlooked is that the suicide helpline does not get any funding from government, she added, and fundraising to keep the call centre running was one of their biggest priorities.
“We are begging for help. If we get help to pay for the telephone bill, we can focus more of our energy on where it is needed the most – helping people in need.
“As an NGO, it’s hard to get people to invest in and to support mental health, especially for something like the suicide helpline line, which isn’t something to which a company or organisation will always want to enthusiastically affiliate itself.
“So we have to fight a little bit harder than other organisations, because …we know mental health is not something we can see or touch.
“There’s also the stigma that it affects other people and not us. So we are appealing to the person on the street who has been affected by mental health issues or suicide to donate even R10.”
She added that every R10 counts, as “it’s a phone call, and a person we get to help”.
She appealed to corporates to dig deeper and invest in mental health. “Help us for one month to not have to worry about our telephone bill.”
SADAG founder Zane Wilson said the need for their services “has never been greater, and we try our best to leave no call unanswered, but we need your support”.
Meanwhile, Health Policy Watch reports that the WHO is urging more investment by governments into mental health, warning that there has been a significant increase in the number of people with mental health disorders – anxiety and depression being the most prevalent, and more common among women than men.
Key findings in the two latest WHO report World Mental Health Today and WHO Mental Health Atlas 2024 include that more than 1bn people around the globe have mental health issies, with numbers up from the last time the data were collected in 2000.
In low-income countries, fewer than 10% of affected individuals receive care compared with more than 50% in higher-income nations, with experts saying that while there are some signs of progress, greater investment and action was vital to scale up services.
Globally, one in every seven people has a mental health disorder: apart from being the second biggest cause of long-term disability, after back pain, and contributing to loss of healthy life, these issues were also driving up healthcare costs for patients and their families.
The reports found that anxiety, depression and eating disorders are the most common mental health disorders among women, while ADHD and substance use is more common among men.
One extreme outcome of mental health disorders is suicide. There were an estimated 727 000 suicides in 2021 alone, making it a leading cause of death in young people across all countries and socio-economic contexts.
Investment still lags
While many countries had improved their mental health services post-pandemic, including taking actions like strengthening their mental health policies, laws and planning, it has not been not enough.
Investment has also stagnated. Median government spending on mental health remains at only 2% of total health budgets – unchanged since 2017 – and there is also a huge spending of disparity between low-income countries and high-income countries.
High-income countries spend up to $65 per person on mental health but low-income countries spend as little as $0.04.
“We see, for example, high-income countries spending a little less than 5% of their health budgets on mental health, whereas in low lower-income countries, it’s more like 1%, so a threefold difference. And if you start looking at the actual dollar amounts, then the differences become much starker,” said Dr Daniel Chisholm, mental health specialist at WHO’s Department of NCDs and Mental Health.
There is no ideal amount to spend, experts said, but if low-income countries also spend about 5% of their overall health budget on mental health disorders, that is likely to go a long way.
Reform in how mental health services are being provided is also progressing very slowly.
Less than 10% of countries have fully transitioned to community-based care models recommended by WHO and other experts, with most countries still in the early stages of transition. Most of the inpatient care continues to rely heavily on psychiatric hospitals, with nearly half of admissions occurring involuntarily and more than 20% lasting longer than a year.
Silver lining
WHO has been pushing countries to expand primary healthcare and integrate mental health services into primary care. Latest data suggests that 71% of countries are now meeting at least three of the five WHO criteria for doing so.
However, data gaps remain; only 22 countries provided sufficient data to estimate service coverage for psychosis.
While there is a chronic shortage of mental health workforce in low-and middle-income countries, with the global median number of mental health workers at 13 per 100 000 people, small improvements have been registered.
The latest data thus show that countries remain far off track to achieve the targets set in WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan for the years 2013-2030.
The reports include data from 144 countries, and are an attempt to provide policy makers with the most up-to-date global data on the prevalence, burden and economic cost of mental health conditions. They are meant to inform national strategies and shape global dialogue ahead of the United Nations High-Level meeting on NCDs and promotion of mental health taking place in New York on 25 September.
TimesLIVE – Depression and anxiety support group in dire straits ahead of World Suicide Prevention Day
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
New WHO guidance for global mental health policies
Mental health disorders to affect half the world by 75 – large global study
Experts propose eight-point global plan to end mental health stigma