The South African Federation for Mental Health

28/08/2025

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The Disability Rights Directorate in the Office of the Premier, Gauteng Province, invites persons with disabilities to contribute to a commemorative e-book titled: “Unfolding the Untold Stories of Gauteng: Disability, Democracy and Human Dignity”

This e-book will launch on 3 December 2025 during Disability Rights Awareness Month and the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. It will showcase your voices, achievements, creativity and resilience as part of South Africa’s democratic journey.

The Department invites stories, poems, artworks, photo essays or audio reflections that capture your experiences, milestones and hopes for an inclusive future.

📩Email your submission to: Disability.Rights@gauteng.gov.za

🚨Deadline for Submission is 26 September 2025

27/08/2025

As part of their work, the SAFMH National Youth Advocacy and Advisory Forum are encouraged to take up advocacy initiatives that are meaningful to them. Mvelonhle Myeza from KZN wrote a research report as part of her advocacy for inclusive advocacy.

Mvelo said: “I chose this topic because I strongly believe that rural mental health remains an under-researched and underserved area in South Africa, despite the country’s stated commitment to community-based care. During the research, it became apparent that cultural and spiritual interpretations of mental illness significantly influenced help-seeking behaviour and access to treatment. What stood out mostly was the extent to which national advocacy efforts often overlook these local contexts, resulting in gaps between policy and lived experience. This points to the importance of advocacy strategies that are both culturally informed and practically inclusive.”

You can read Mvelo's research report at the link below.

🔗https://www.safmh.org/confronting-advocacy-blindspots-in-south-african-mental-health/

26/08/2025

📅 Save the date — 23 October 2025

Join SAFMH and Tabvuma Mental Health for a powerful webinar: “Culturally safe and responsive mental health care: Lessons from Australia and South Africa.” The webinar will share practical examples of how culturally grounded, respectful and community-centred care is put into practice, because culture matters in healing.

Keep an eye out for registration details coming soon!

25/08/2025

When was the last time you pressed “pause” on life and took a mental health day? 🌿

If you are feeling stressed, demotivated, heading towards burnout, or just requiring a well-deserved break, a mental health day could be the reset button you need.

There’s no one right way to spend a mental health day - what matters is choosing activities that recharge your batteries and bring you joy. 💚

As 2025 continues to speed by, the SAFMH team hit the pause button this week and embraced our own mental health day. Below, we share a few reflections from team members on how they chose to rest, refresh, and re-energise.

📢 If your organisation has a mental health day coming up, please let us know! Every effort counts, and by celebrating these moments together, we can keep well-being at the forefront.

20/08/2025

📢 A message for Women's Month

Gender is a strong factor in a person’s mental health. It can determine the power and control a person has over their social position, status, treatment, and access to services in society. 🩷

While the rates of mental health conditions are almost identical for men and women, certain disorders, such as depression and anxiety, are more common among women. In commemoration of Women’s Month 2025, we are so thankful to Michelle Kekana for sharing her lived experience of depression with us.

Michelle is an author who has written her debut novel, “The Fragile Mental Health of Strong Women“. She was granted a writing fellowship through the University of Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Studies (JIAS). She has also been published in an anthology of essays about post-apartheid South Africa.

🎧 You can listen to Michelle’s story in her own words at the link below.

🔗 https://www.safmh.org/its-okay-to-be-fragile-its-okay-to-fall-apart-a-message-for-womens-month/

15/08/2025

12/08/2025

In honour of , we are spotlighting the young coaches at Grassroot Soccer SA. ⚽

Grassroot Soccer SA is a community-based organisation that leverages the power of soccer to equip young people with the life-saving information, services, and mentorship they need to live healthier lives. Their programmes equip young people with the tools to tackle the most critical and interrelated health challenges facing them today, including mental health. 💚

📽️ SAFMH recently visited the Grassroot Soccer SA facility in Alexandra, Johannesburg, to chat with some of their coaches and observe the mental health programme in action.

🔗 Learn more about Grassroot Soccer SA here: https://grassrootsoccer.org/southafrica/

07/08/2025

🫨It's that time of year when the calendar says mid-year, but your brain might be saying stress or even burnout. As we hit the second-half stretch, let’s talk about stress and how to keep going without running on empty.

Stress: Unavoidable, but it doesn't need to make you sick. Stress is a normal part of life, but when it builds up without being addressed, it can take a toll on your body and mind.

📢Whether you are a parent, young person or caregiver, or just feeling the pressure, our latest newsletter includes tailored resources to help you manage your stress and keep going strong.

📩Head to the link below to read the latest SAFMH newsletter.
🔗 https://mailchi.mp/safmh/stressawareness2025

31/07/2025

The SA Federation for Mental Health [SAFMH] unequivocally condemns the negligence of Northern Cape Mental Health Hospital and Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe Hospital as reported by the Health Ombudsman report released yesterday.

As a mental health-focused, human-rights organisation, SAFMH believes that access to quality mental health care is a human right.

We call for immediate action from the National Department of Health as well as the Northern Cape Provincial Department of Health to adequately address the findings from this investigation.

🚨We want to see good mental health realised for all in South Africa. This is non-negotiable.

Read our full statement about the Health Ombuds report below.

🔗https://www.safmh.org/safmh-responds-to-health-ombuds-report-on-northern-cape-mental-health-hospitals/

28/07/2025

📢 Call-to-Action!

SAFMH believes that now is the time to meaningfully invest in youth mental health in the country. Ensuring that our youth are thriving is not just about one ground-breaking intervention, grant funding or singular behavioural programmes. It’s about developing a “whole-of-society approach’'' which involves active collaboration between multiple stakeholders to address the fundamental challenges facing the country’s youth today, including poverty, crime, unemployment, violence and access to education.

This Psychosocial Disability Awareness Month, we call on the South African government to:

📢 Uphold their commitment of decentralising and integrating mental health into general health services, mainly at the primary healthcare level. We believe that a community-based model of mental health care would promote more equitable access to health care, which is crucial in South Africa, given that most communities do not have access to specialist care, including youth with mental health conditions.

📢 Address the "treatment gap" by establishing and deploying multidisciplinary mental health teams that actively also focus on youth mental health in each district across the country.

📢 Institute an increased ring-fenced budget for mental health, with a large proportion being invested in community-based mental health care. Sufficient funding should also be directed to promotion and prevention interventions aimed at youth.

📢 Put youth at the centre of any and all mental health initiatives that involve them, ensuring that they are part of the policy-making process and that they are invited into decision-making spaces as standard practice.

We also ask the public and the media to join us in calling upon the government to act now to support young people’s mental health, as now is the hour to make our youth empowered!

23/07/2025

📢 What does investment in youth mental health mean?

Both the World Health Organisation and UNICEF advise investing meaningfully in promotion and prevention programmes and interventions aimed at youth.

There is ample evidence that shows that investing in youth mental health can lead to notable economic and social benefits in the long term.

Join us in calling upon the government to act now to support youth mental health, as now is the hour to make our youth empowered!