What a few Rands more can buy for mental health and violence prevention?

1. What a few Rands more can buy for
mental health and violence
prevention?
By Nomfundo Mogapi
Centre for the Study of Violence
and Reconciliation 09 November
2011

2. AIM
• Highlight what the value investing in violence
prevention
• SA based on our experience in responding to
mental health needs of victims of violence in lat
two decades

3. INTRODUCTION
• SCOPE OF VIOLENCE IN SA
• 2 121 887 serious crimes were committed in the
2009/2010 calendar year.
• Over 30% of these were contact crimes, and over
25% were property related crimes.
• 30% of all crimes were assault with grievous
bodily harm,
• 10.1% were sexual offences (I in 9 report).
• Violence is the second largest cause of death on
SA

4. CONSEQUENCES OF VIOLENCE
• HEALTH
▫ Disability
▫ Chronic illness related to stress-high blood, diabetes
▫ Injuries
• MENTAL HEALTH
▫ Post Traumatic stress
▫ Impact on indirect victims
▫ Other cormobid: depression, other mental problems
• ECONOMIC
▫ Trauma and violence are seen as the single largest loss of productivity in
SA (work days loss, PTSD at work affecting performance)
▫ Worse in it is a death of a bread winner
• OTHER SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF FUNCTIONING
▫ Parenting
▫ Education and schooling
▫ Workplace functioning

5. THE COST
• BURDEN ON THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
▫ Trauma Unit- Groote Schuur Hospital study on 969
patients with gun shot injuries in 1993 showed a cost of R3
858 331 to the hospital (van der Spuy and M Peden ,1997)-
13% of the cost
▫ 87% cost due to disability, premature death (R
10,828,219 ).
▫ Total cost of about: R 12,446,229 in that area only
• PSYCHOSOCIAL AND MENTAL HEALTH: Civil society
service provision vs. development and democracy
• SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Victim empowerment
programme, funding NGOs
• COST OF POLICING: (trauma training, victim
empowerment centers, burnout, police violence)
• PRIVATE SECURITY: Multibillion industry

6. TICKING BOMB
• From our experience: Country is unable to sustain
the investment in addressing the consequences of
crime
▫ Civil society closing down
▫ Overburden health system
▫ Over loaded social dev-shortages of social workers and
psychologists
▫ Increasing frustration from victims who resort to ultra
legal systems (mob justice)
▫ Current focus on policing as the key driver of violence
prevention is not helpful
▫ Overburdened prisons (universities for hard core
criminality)
▫ Overburdened police

7. SOMETHING NEEDS TO SHIFT
• Desperately need to invest in a public health approach
violence prevention initiatives that look at:
▫ Research: protective and risk factors
▫ Linking research with interventions
▫ Investing in localised interventions that could be scaled up
▫ Evaluation and impact studies on what works
• Benefits of this:
- Reduce the health, CJP costs towards other developmental
priorities such as education, job creation
- Reduced focus on mental health problems of mental health
functioning that promotes successful and thriving individuals
- Higher numbers of economically active people who
contribute to the growth of the economy