Safety for all! – Mental Health Services Organisations call for urgent action from Western Cape Government

As we engage in a period of 16 Days of Activism of No Violence Against Women and Children, we urge the provincial and local governments to prioritise safety for all.

Following the latest eruption of taxi-strike violence and intimidation across Cape Town communities, The Counselling Hub, the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture, Lifeline WC, Famsa WC, Jelly Beanz, MOSAIC and Rape Crisis together call on the Western Cape government to include psychosocial support as an essential service of care for all community members, especially the women, children and LGBTQIA+ exposed to violence at multiple levels in communities.

Coordinator of the Counselling Hub, Woodstock, Shifra Jacobson, and Tele-Counselling Manager Nandipha Ganya says, “Over the past three months, 60% of our social media followers have said that they have either experienced or witnessed criminal violence including assaults, muggings, kidnapping and hijackings. There’s a rise in homophobic and transphobic violence, while gender-based violence against women and children is ever-increasing.  A significant mass of the Western Cape population is experiencing trauma and post-traumatic stress.  FAMSA’s Western Cape Director, Noelene Blekkenhorst says, “Many have little hope of accessing the mental health services they need to recover and rebuild, while government positions for registered counsellors and social workers stand empty.”

The lack of basic safety and security sweeps relentlessly across wide swathes of Cape Town’s communities.  Poverty and unemployment, substance abuse and gangsterism are rife.  Crime and violence impact people’s abilities to work and be productive citizens.  They suffocate individuals’ efforts to be caring and considerate parents and community members by adversely affecting their mental health.  The latest crime statistics from 1 July to 30 September 2022 released by the South African government last week, show a double-digit increase over the previous year when it comes to assault, attempted murder and murder of women.

Advocate Tarisai Mchuchu–McMillan, who is also the Executive Director of MOSAIC says, “Guarantees of safety in wounded communities must include support for the healing of people’s emotions so that they can live positively in a more equal society. We cannot keep saying that crime and gender-based violence rates are ‘unacceptable’. The time for action is long overdue. There are clear steps that various Western Cape government departments can take to improve security and safety for all and increase access to vital mental health services for the survivors of crime and violence.”

The Counselling Hub, the Trauma Centre for Survivors of Violence and Torture, Lifeline WC, Famsa WC, Jelly Beanz, MOSAIC and Rape Crisis are calling for:

  • The Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness to fill all the vacant community-based counsellor posts in the province’s clinics and day hospitals.
  • The Western Cape Department of Social Development to provide funding and posts for social workers who can help tackle the multi-factorial issues.
  • The Western Cape Department of Community Security to deploy the necessary resources to Community Policing Forums and Neighbourhood Watch members, ensuring that they can effectively support community members to uphold the rule of law and link them to support services, including the police and courts.
  • The Western Cape government to engage with the SAPS to ensure that there are functional Victim-Friendly Rooms in every police station and provide further resources to the Western Cape Department of Social Development to ensure that there are paid, trained psycho-social service counsellors to support victims of crime and violence when they present at SAPS.
  • The City of Cape Town’s Early Childhood and Social Development department to play an active role in providing additional resources in ensuring that there are social workers, and trauma counsellors in city facilities within communities to ensure that there is increased access to psycho-social support. Childcare facilities are a constitutional mandate of local government and counselling should be the base of such care facilities as mandated by schedule 4B of the constitution.

Romi Kaplan, co-founder of the Counselling Hub concludes, “The South African Constitution clearly states that everyone has the right to freedom and security of the person, which includes the right to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources. To ensure that we secure a safe future, we need to invest in healing the traumas people experience daily while we are equally working to uproot the key drivers of violence. We stand together as hard-working providers of community mental health services facing a myriad of trauma needs, and we ask the government to do their part.”

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