THE country’s first psychiatric unit dedicated to caring for children will be established at the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital in Durban.
This week the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital Trust (CHT) announced that the original hospital building on South Beach would house a 40-bed mental health unit for children and adolescents.
Camilla Singh, a trustee from the KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital Trust, said the plan was for the hospital to become a centre of excellence for the province.
She said the psychiatric unit would have 15 beds for adolescent girls, 15 for adolescent boys and 10 for children.
“The plan for the hospital is to have a boys’ adolescent ward, a girls’ adolescent psychiatric ward, and a children’s psychiatric ward. So far, we’ve got funding for the children’s ward and for the girls’ adolescent ward. So we still need funding for the boys’ adolescent ward.”
Singh said each ward would cost between R10 and R12 million but there were other allied rooms that were also required.
At present the hospital, which has been refurbished in stages as funding has been raised, has a neuro-developmental centre for outpatients where children with cerebral palsy, autism and allied problems are treated. The centre has been in operation since 2013 and has already conducted more than 45 000 consultations.
From November those children who need “block therapy” and their parents will be accommodated in an adjacent building which was previously used as a nurses’ home, said Singh.
“There are a lot of rooms here now for patients to stay in. The patient will stay with the parents and the carers overnight and then during the day the patient will come and have the block therapy. They have to have a certain number of hours a year and at the moment, they’re not getting that because it’s difficult for them to come from far and so on.”
She said the hospital also had a drop-in centre for adolescents where they saw between 80 and 100 patients a day, mainly for sexual reproductive health issues, HIV and Aids as well as diagnosis and treatment. Its psychology centre opened in 2022.
KZN Children’s Hospital Trust CEO Taryn Millar said KZN had the second-largest child population in the country and there was a critical shortage of facilities for treating child and adolescent mental health in the province. She said they were in a public-private partnership with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health and were working together towards the next phase of renovation.
“The ‘go’ button will be pressed as soon as approval has been obtained from Mental Health services of KZN and National Department of Health.”
Much of the interior of the “Main Old Children’s Hospital Building” still needs renovating and the KZN Children’s Hospital Trust has been on a fundraising drive for the renovation of the planned psychiatric unit.
It has also received commitments of nearly R21m from the South African Muslim Charitable Trust and Hollywood Foundation, said Miller.
The Trust celebrated World Mental Health Awareness Day on Thursday with an event at the KZN Children’s Hospital, saying it helped to raise awareness of the urgent need to prioritise the mental health needs of children and adolescents.
The hospital formerly known as the Addington Children’s Hospital was opened in 1931 and became the first hospital in Africa dedicated to the care and treatment of children. However, the apartheid government closed it in 1984 because it treated children of colour. The building then fell into a state of disrepair until the hospital was re-established in 2010. Renovations are ongoing.
