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15 Health & Hum. Rts. 110 (2013)
Barriers to Accessing and Receiving Mental Health Care in Eastern Cape, South Africa

handle is hein.journals/harhrj15 and id is 314 raw text is: Isabell Schierenbeck, PhD, is Associate Professor in Political Science at the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Peter Johansson, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in Peace and Development Research at the School of Global Studies at the University of Gothenburg. Lena M. C. Andersson, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in the Unit of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, at the University of Gothenburg. Dalena van Rooyen, PhD, is Professor of Nursing Science, in the School of Clinical Care Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Please address correspon- dence to the authors c/o Isabell Schierenbeck, email: isabell.schierenbeck@global- studies.gu.se. Competing interests: None declared. Copyright: © 2013 Schierenbeck, Johansson, Andersson, and van Rooyen. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecom- mons. org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribu- tion, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. BARRIERS TO ACCESSING AND RECEIVING MENTAL HEALTH CARE IN EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA Isabell Schierenbeck, Peter Johansson, Lena M. C. Andersson, Dalena van Rooyen ABSTRACT The rzght to the enjyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental healt is enstrined in many international human rights treaties. However, studies have shown that people with mental disabilifies are often marginalized and discrzmi nated against in te fulfillment of their nght to healt. The aim of this stud is to identify and reach a broader understanding of barriers to the right to mental health in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Eleven semi-structured interviews were carried out witbh health professionals and administrators. The researchers used the Availabiliy, Accessibily, Acceptabiliy, and Qualiy (AAAQ) framework from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to structure and anayZe the maeral. The framework recognizes these four interrelated and part# overlapping elements as necessay for implementation of the right to health. The stud identifies eleven barriers to the enjoyment of the fght to healt for eople wit men tal dsabilities. Three categories of barners relate to availabiliy: lack of staff, lack of fadliies, and lack of communioy sen ces and preventive care. Four barriers relate to accessibily: lack of tran 0ort, lack of information, stgmatization, and tradi- tional cultural beliefs of the communi . Two barriers relate to acceptability: lack of cross-cultural understanding among staff and traditional cultural beliefs of staff. Final, two barriers relate to qualiy: lack of properlj trained staff and lack of organizational capa67y. The results, in line wit earlier research, indicate that the implementation of the qdght to health forpeople wit mental disabilities isfarfrom achieved in South Africa. The findings contribute to monitoring te ght to mental health in South Africa through the identification of bariers to the tight to health and by indicating the importance of building monitoring procedures based on the expei- ences and knowledge of staff involved in mental health care provision. INTRODUCTION The right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health (from here on, the right to health) is enshrined in many international and regional human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR); and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC).1 The right to health includes both physical and mental health, thus: ... efforts to recognize and uphold a human right to health must incorporate strategies to protect, respect, and fulfil mental health as well as physical health. Establishing and upholding affirmative mental health rights can funda- mentally advance the dignity and welfare of persons with

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