Shortage of hospital beds raises concerns
The South African Society of Psychiatrists is concerned about a possible shortage of hospital beds for patients with mental illnesses.
The group's Dr Kagisho Maaroganye explains that in a health crisis, like the one we're in now, facilities will try to create more space for emergency COVID-19 cases.
"Some provinces were trying to build up towards increasing the numbers then COVID-19 came in, and now the need for more beds has become acute.
"The other thing is that you find that hospitals obviously need to cater for those who are newly infected and those who are severely infected, so they come into hospital, and the hospital only has so many beds, then nurses start looking around for more beds. We're just concerned that they must not try and look at psychiatric beds."
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Maaroganye says stresses and disruptions brought on by the pandemic, have negatively affected many people's mental health.
"They start becoming maybe delusional about the implications of COVID-19 in their lives and some of them are oblivious because they've got severe and profound intellectual disability so they may not even be aware of what's going on."
