Sithembile Mjadu

Bio: Sithembile Mjadu is an academic researcher from University of KwaZulu-Natal. The author has contributed to research in topics: Mental health & Health care. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 261 citations.

Collaboration between traditional practitioners and primary health care staff in South Africa: developing a workable partnership for community mental health services.

Abstract: The majority of the black African population in South Africa utilize both traditional and public sector Western systems of healing for mental health care. There is a need to develop models of collaboration that promote a workable relationship between the two healing systems. The aim of this study was to explore perceptions of service users and providers of current interactions between the two systems of care and ways in which collaboration could be improved in the provision of community mental health services. Qualitative individual and focus group interviews were conducted with key health care providers and service users in one typical rural South African health sub-district. The majority of service users held traditional explanatory models of illness and used dual systems of care, with shifting between treatment modalities reportedly causing problems with treatment adherence. Traditional healers expressed a lack of appreciation from Western health care practitioners but were open to training in Western biomedical approaches and establishing a collaborative relationship in the interests of improving patient care. Western biomedically trained practitioners were less interested in such an arrangement. Interventions to acquaint traditional practitioners with Western approaches to the treatment of mental illness, orientation of Western practitioners towards a culture-centred approach to mental health care, as well as the establishment of fora to facilitate the negotiation of respectful collaborative relationships between the two systems of healing are required at district level to promote an equitable collaboration in the interests of improved patient care.

Planning for district mental health services in South Africa: a situational analysis of a rural district site

Abstract: The shift in emphasis to universal primary health care in post-apartheid South Africa has been accompanied by a process of decentralization of mental health services to district level, as set out in the new Mental Health Care Act, no. 17, of 2002 and the 1997 White Paper on the Transformation of the Health System. This study sought to assess progress in South Africa with respect to deinstitutionalization and the integration of mental health into primary health care, with a view to understanding the resource implications of these processes at district level. A situational analysis in one district site, typical of rural areas in South Africa, was conducted, based on qualitative interviews with key stakeholders and the World Health Organization's Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS). The findings suggest that the decentralization process remains largely limited to emergency management of psychiatric patients and ongoing psychopharmacological care of patients with stabilized chronic conditions. We suggest that, in a similar vein to other low- to middle-income countries, deinstitutionalization and comprehensive integrated mental health care in South Africa is hampered by a lack of resources for mental health care within the primary health care resource package, as well as the inefficient use of existing mental health resources.

Methods and systems for translating from one language to another

Abstract: FIELD: information technology. SUBSTANCE: present invention relates to translation from one language to another. Wireless mobile device service is provided with a service for selective downloading information from the server. The downloaded information includes the architecture of the translation, which has means of translating, independent of language, and at least one language dependent translation database. The translation data base which depends on the language includes translation templates and dictionary translations. It can also load specialised database for the chosen city or cities in the world. Translation between languages is carried out through the application of translation database in the means of translating which depends on the language and translation database, specific to a particular city. For simplification of translation process the means of translation implements a user controlled scheme for replacing terms. EFFECT: invention increases quality and convenience of text translation in a natural language. 24 cl, 5 dwg

Public sector mental health systems in South Africa: inter-provincial comparisons and policy implications

Abstract: Background There is growing recognition that mental health is an important public health issue in South Africa. Yet mental health services remain chronically under-resourced. The aim of this study was to document levels of current public sector mental health service provision in South Africa and compare services across provinces, in relation to current national policy and legislation.