Support for Mental Disability Comcare Promotes Activities to Assist Vulnerable Members of Society

In South Africa, about 75% of individuals with mental health disorders either do not get the care they need or they receive inferior quality of treatment. The problem is exacerbated by not only the stigma around mental illness but also by South African healthcare failing to invest in solutions. Michelle De Goede, the director at Comcare, a non-profit organisation offering support and accommodation to individuals with mental disorders explains, ‘People with mental illness and psychiatric conditions are stigmatised. There are still myths that they should be locked away in an institution because they are dangerous, that they are criminals, or that every single person with mental illness is a drug user.’ But this should not be the case.