This comes after she reported that the Free State and the Northern Cape were among five provinces visited by the organisation, experiencing psychiatric drug stock-outs. She said this at the South African Human Rights Commission’s hearings on the state of mental health care in the country this week.

Sunkel says that in addition to the visits, they conducted a national survey which revealed that 59% of the participants did not receive medication due to stock-outs. Out of those who reported stock-outs, 30% experienced a complete relapse and had to be hospitalised; another 30% experienced symptoms that did not require hospitalisation; 17% reported problems with sleeping patterns - lack of sleep in particular; and 13 % reported that they were suffering from anxiety. Some of these participants reported financial strain after stock-outs forced them to purchase medication using their own money.

Sunkel, who was diagnosed with Schizophrenia in 1991, knows the challenges faced by those without medical insurance because she also had to rely on public health facilities for treatment. She says the problem with medical insurance is that it does not cover mental health issues completely, so she was forced to make use of public mental health services because she simply couldn’t afford to pay more money in addition to her medical aid.

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