Mount Frere

Mental health care services in South Africa, and particularly in the former homelands, are inadequate both in terms of their failure to meet the needs of the majority of the population and in terms of the nature of the service provided. This is a consequence of Apartheid socio-economic policies, the damaging effect of the enforcement of these policies and a generally low prioritisation of mental health care. The economic implications of neglecting mental health care are discussed. These factors provided the motivation for a situation analysis of mental health in Mount Frere in order to prepare the ground for improvements to the current service. Objectives of the study were to explore the perceived mental health needs of the community, the needs and perceptions of health workers, to conduct an audit of the currently available mental health resources and services in Mount Frere and to make recommendations for improving the current services.

This Kwik-Skwiz is designed to inform you about one of the most important and often neglected components of the whole health system, namely the service provided by the registry section. The registry provides a strong foundation for all the other health services by storing and distributing vital information in a logical an easily accessible manner. If the registry foundation is weak the entire health building will also be weakened.

Undernutrition underlies more than one in three childhood deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa one in four children are stunted and one in three have Vitamin A deficiency. Growth monitoring and promotion (GMP) has the potential to prevent much undernutrition and to integrate the care of a child. It is central to the Governments Integrated Nutrition Programme (INP), and other childhood programmes such as the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI). At a community level, GMP can also be a powerful tool for increasing community awareness of undernutrition and mobilising their action.

Practical approaches to health promotion within a district.

(Reconstruct) Report on visit to Mount Frere

Report on visit to Isinamva in Mount Frere

I would like to extol my predecessor Mr. Thando Cengimbo, for the work he has done so well in publishing the first District Newsletter. I would like to take up the challenges he posed in his last article Youth Development from a social point of view. Let us look at the trends of sex and sexuality in our youth.

This document is a testament to the following: The poor health of the people in Mount Frere, the deprivation and neglect of the health services in the Mount Frere district within which its health workers struggle.

When the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Systems Trust brought together a group of senior journalists, politicians and foreign ambassadors to discuss the media and the marginalised the illustration of life in rural South Africa came across more vividly than was intended. Even with its fleet of chartered planes and 4X4 vehicles, the tour could not reach its destination of Mount Frere in the former Transkei.