GALLERY: Mental health awareness campaign at the United Cerebral Palsy Association
Mental health awareness is a key priority in promoting learning and living standards of people living with the disability.
PEOPLE living with mental health challenges have special capabilities which communities should support by affording them equal opportunities to learn and grow like any other said assistant director of mental health in the Johannesburg district Aruna Ramanlal.
This follows a mental health awareness campaign held on July 13 at the United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCPA) based in Townsview, Johannesburg.
In attendance were 30 non-governmental organisations and several officials from the Department of Health and the Gauteng Department of Education who made presentations for the best care facilities for the mentally challenged.
Ramanlal said the awareness would help organisations with the best skills and tools to care for the mentally ill through appropriate interactive stimulation.
“We hold these awareness programmes every July with a focus on mental ill health and in October we centralise on mental health and our theme this month is ‘Interactive Stimulation’ as we believe every individual has the capacity to grow and learn,” she said.
The department has 42 NGOs in the Johannesburg district and the workshop is a collective action to reach out to communities and how best they can address mental health issues.
Dr Juggie Perumal from the Gauteng Department of Education said the department has been positively contributing to mental health by providing education and training to learners with severe to profound intellectual disability.
He said previously the Department of Education didn’t provide this service to learners with disabilities until the project was started in 2011 and is currently being rolled out to all provinces.
“Gauteng services several care centres of people with disability and at the moment we provide educational resources, training of care workers, therapeutic services like occupational therapy, speech therapy, educational and specialist teachers,” said Perumal.
UCPA executive director Marie van den Berg said her institution was proud to have hosted the workshop as individuals and organisations would get necessary information on interactive stimulation and how to prioritise children or adults in their care.
Different care centres of people living with disability took the opportunity to showcase and advertise different crafts and goods created by members of their organisations.
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