The alleged Dros rapist’s defence lawyer is trying to blame his client’s behaviour on a bipolar diagnosis. But while many people associate mental illness with violence those who are mentally ill are much more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators, reports HEALTH-E’s Amy Green.

The South African Federation for Mental Health (SAFMH) has condemned local media houses for creating the impression that people living with mental illness are violent and criminally dangerous in the wake of rape-accused Nicholas Ninow’s defence citing his psychological state in court.

Exactly a year after the start of the arbitration hearings that sought justice for the families of the dead Life Esidimeni patients, the esteemed The Lancet medical journal has released a global mental health report condemning the local disaster as “tragic”.

The decision of Former Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke in the Life Esidimeni arbitration is an important landmark following more than two years of resistance, negotiation, confrontation, heart break and horror, writes Section27 attorney.

Following a litany of lies, “murderous” decisions, agonising deaths and torturous transfers, an amount of R1.2-million will now be paid to each of the families affected by the Gauteng Department of Health’s decision to move mentally ill patients out of Life Esidimeni facilities.

Families of the 140-plus psychiatric patients who died after being moved from Life Esidimeni facilities to irregularly registered non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have suffered so much that some themselves are now dying.

The first day of former Gauteng Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu’s testimony at the Life Esidimeni arbitration hearings has left families disgruntled, angry and with more questions than answers.