Empowering people to live life well
How we help people
You may never need our services, but many people experience emotional difficulties and ask us for help. Anyone can have a family member with intellectual disability, anyone can sustain brain injury in an accident, anyone can face a life crisis, and anyone can suffer from emotional distress or a mental illness. So, any person is welcome to approach our organisation for counselling and rehabilitation opportunities.
People with disabilities still face unacceptable social and economic exclusion, are still objects of sympathy, and are still not treated as quite fully human.
The pursuit of mental health and the promotion of quality of life for those with mental disabilities lie at the core of our work.
Staff Counselling Network for the corporate and public sector
Contact details:
Cape Mental Health Head Office
Tel. 021 4479040
Fax: 021 448 8475
Email:
Contact details:
Cape Mental Health Head Office
Tel. 021 4479040
Fax: 021 448 8475
Email:
For more information contact:
Learning for Life, Cape Mental Health Society
Ekin Kench (Learning for Life Coordinator)
Ian Veary (Co-coordinator)
Tel. 021 447 6804 Fax 021 447 6804
Email:
4. Public Education & Available Resources
Contact details:
Marion le Fleur (Public Relations and Communications Manager)
Tel. 021 447 9040
Fax. 021 448 8475
Email:
5. Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Psychosocial rehabilitation is a process that facilitates opportunity for individuals who are disabled due to a mental illness, to reach their optimal level of functioning in the community, emphasising individual choices and encouraging ownership of their own recovery.
The Rainbow Foundation
Community-based care: Government policy since the early 1990s shifted away from hospitalisation towards de-institutionalisation and care within the community, with the result that thousands of people were discharged from psychiatric hospitals. The provision of community-based psychosocial support for people with psychiatric disability, who are not in an institution or hospital, is therefore crucial.
Rainbow Foundation coordinates community-based psychosocial support groups for people with psychiatric illness, to reduce relapses and re-hospitalisation, and to improve their independent functioning.
The programme consists of fifteen community-based groups that aim to equip service-users in the community through skills training, psycho-education, modest income-generating projects, development of support networks and monitoring of mental health states.
Group members’ ownership of and participation in the groups are encouraged through joint planning, sharing of tasks and responsibilities, and regular evaluation of members’ satisfaction. Training is provided to equip group members with the skills they need. Any person with a mental illness can apply for membership to our PSR groups.
Criteria for acceptance are:
Belonging to a Rainbow group represents access to only one part of a continuum of care. Contact with other role-players remains a priority. Networking with other groups, caregivers and service-providers is encouraged through monthly meetings, workshops and invitations to visit. Joint activities, such as the Annual Sports Day, create opportunities for liaison with groups co-ordinated by PAWC (Provincial Administration, Western Cape) occupational therapists and occupational therapist assistants.
Contact details:
Rene Minnies, PSR Manager
Tel. 021 4479040
Fax: 021 448 8475
Email:
Fountain House (Established 1986)
(The Fountain House website is at www.fountainhouse.co.za)
Fountain House (SA), a community-based rehabilitation centre, provides vocational training and skills development to people with psychiatric disabilities. The aim is to facilitate and enhance the gradual reintegration into society and the work place of a person with psychiatric disability.
We believe that people with mental illnesses can lead productive, meaningful and satisfying lives
At Fountain House (SA) service-users play a major role in decision-making and every effort is made to provide equal opportunities. Fountain House (SA) adopts a skills-strengthening approach, focusing on strengths and abilities, rather than mental illness. We believe that our service-users are able to work productively. A comprehensive treatment plan includes not only medication and hospitalisation, but also skills development and appropriate support systems to facilitate mental health.
The Health Care 2010 Plan instituted by Government is a move away from hospitalisation towards primary health care and intervention at community level. However, community programmes for people with a mental illness remain extremely limited. We are very proud of the fact that Fountain House (SA) is quoted as a “Best Practice” example by the Directorate Human Rights Programmes and the Provincial Administration Western Cape in their publication Celebrating Disability in our Decade of Democracy 1994 – 2004.
Most of our service-users are unemployed and are from disadvantaged communities. They frequently have to help support families on their meagre R820 per month disability grant. Often mental illnesses strike for the first time at an age when people are about to become economically active. This means they miss vital opportunities and face great challenges.
Vocational Training
At Fountain House (SA), service-users have access to on-the-job training in a wide variety of skills. They can participate in the activities of four work units at the centre. These units provide real-life settings and hands-on opportunities to refine and/or acquire work-related as well as social competencies. Our day programme simulates a work environment and is available every weekday between 08h30 and 16h30. Members and trained rehabilitation workers work alongside one another. They perform the real jobs required to run the centre efficiently.
The following units are available: Catering, Administrative Skills, Micro-business Skills, Employment and Communications and Marketing. For instance, in the Administrative Unit we teach office skills and computer literacy, while in the Micro-business Skills Unit we manufacture quality hand-made paper and paper products which are sold to the public and retail outlets.
Transitional Employment Programme
The Transitional Employment Programme (TEP) subscribes to the fundamentals of Employment Equity . Its primary purpose is to assist adults with a psychiatric disability in their reintegration into the open labour market. This programme works to overcome long-standing patterns of vocational disability and financial dependency.
In keeping with the government’s inclusive labour policy, Fountain House offers a unique work and social skills training programme to prepare its members for work. Participants are thus provided with an opportunity to use their newly acquired skills within a dynamic job placement scheme.
Features of the transitional employment programme:
Contact details:
René Minnies (PSR Manager),
Tel. 021 447 7409
Fax: 021 447 0319
Email:
Cape Consumer Advocacy Body (CCAB)
Historically, users of mental health care services have been passive partners in their own treatment and psychosocial rehabilitation.
The new Health Care Dispensation (1995) and the Bill of Rights (1996) recognise the importance of service users claiming their right to advocate for quality of life.
Through various existing support groups, consumers voiced their need for a body where they could represent themselves. Service-providers received training in psychosocial rehabilitation, facilitated by SOGG from Rotterdam, Holland. Subsequently, contact was established with Basisberaad, a consumer organisation in Holland that was willing to “buddy” a consumer body in Cape Town.
Basisberaad’s guidance and encouragement, coupled with service-users’ readiness and service-providers’ willingness, culminated in forming such a body. The result was the Cape Consumer Advocacy Body, which was founded in December 1999 and runs under the auspices of Cape Mental Health Society.
Objectives:
Contact details:
Rene Minnies, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Manager
Tel. 021 4479040
Fax: 021 448 8475
Email:
6. Sexual Abuse Victim Empowerment (SAVE)
People with intellectual disabilities are even more vulnerable to sexual abuse than the general population owing to their powerlessness, difficulties in expressing themselves, reliance on others, lack of assertiveness, impaired judgement and lack of sexual knowledge.
The SAVE programme came about in 1990 at the request of the Department of Justice and the South African Police Services, who wanted to ensure that justice was pursued in cases of sexual abuse where people with intellectual disability were complainants.
The programme has been very successful and the need for our services continues to escalate. We have a long waiting list for victims to be assessed by our clinical psychologists.
In addition, we train members of the police force and public prosecutors to develop the skills they need to conduct interviews with complainants with intellectual disabilities with greater sensitivity to and understanding of their special needs.
The SAVE programme shows that we can adequately prepare the victim for the system, through
Contact details:
Carol Bosch
Tel. 021 4479040
Fax: 021 448 8475
Email:
Our organisation runs four special care centres that provide a day programme for 180 children with severe intellectual and physical disabilities. These non-residential facilities are situated in poor, under-resourced areas of the greater Cape Town area and provide services to children from the communities of Bonteheuwel, Netreg, Hanover Park, greater Athlone, Guguletu, Langa, Crossroads, Harare, Site B, Macassar, Site C, Makhaya, Greenpoint, Khayelitsha, Ndloveni, and greater Mitchell’s Plain – areas characterised by unemployment, crime and poverty.
The four centres are:
Children with intellectual disabilities are a particularly vulnerable group, for whom provision in South Africa has been completely inadequate, especially in poor African communities. Apart from the lack of services or access to them, there is still the tremendous stigma of disability, mothers of disabled children are often abandoned by their partners, and the children are hidden away. In most cases, mothers or grandmothers are the sole caregivers.
The 180 children who attend our four day centres have been affected by intellectual disability to various degrees. Most have mental ages ranging between that of an average 3 to 5-year-old, even though their real ages range from 2 years to 22 years of age. Some of our disabled children tend to grow and learn more slowly; some will never walk or talk and will depend on others for much-needed assistance; some are also blind, deaf, and suffer frequent seizures.
A strong focus is placed on a planned development programme, customised for each child. A comprehensive day programme includes assessment and specialised training, a school-feeding scheme to prevent malnutrition, and a school transport service. The self-help skills that are taught improve the quality of their lives and lighten the burden of care that rests on their families. Families benefit too, by receiving valuable guidance and support to help them cope with the taxing responsibility of caring for a severely disabled child.
A staff development and training programme helps careworkers that are disadvantaged by poor educational backgrounds to become effective workers in the disability field. This is particularly important, as the shift in emphasis from caring for children with disabilities in specialised settings to caring for them in the community, demands a workforce that has received comprehensive training. Emotional and economic empowerment is directed particularly at women, the primary caregivers of our disabled children.
Contact details:
Bernadine Chilwane
Tel. 021 4479040
Fax: 021 448 8475
Email:
or
8. Training Workshops Unlimited
Mission
Training Workshops Unlimited is committed to providing appropriate skills and employment training to empower persons with intellectual disability to achieve their fullest potential.
Training Workshops Unlimited conducts work in a safe, clean environment, under-pinned by a commitment to professionalism and continuous improvement at all times.
Background
Background
Training Workshops Unlimited runs the following training centres:
The above centres all offer work skills and lifeskills programmes. Sub-contracting work conducted at these centres includes assembly work, packaging, concrete and cement work, sorting, wire work, printing, filing and shrink-wrapping. Mitchell’s Plain Training Centre runs an excellent woodwork workshop and Khayelitsha Training Centre operates a successful laundry service. Garden Pot Centre manufactures garden pots, balustrades and other garden furniture.
The Training School is also responsible for conducting the initial streaming assessments on all new trainees at TWU and uses the WUBSA assessment and parts of the MODAPTS PLUS assessment to establish a baseline for training. The WUBSA is a basic skills assessment that was developed by an Occupational Therapist and indicates the level of supervision required and quality of basic work skills performance.
The TWU Training School provides all new work skills trainees with prevocational training. This programme not only trains participants to perform basic work skills, but also introduces trainees to the work environment, enabling them to learn about appropriate work behaviour and work habits. All new trainees also undergo sexuality training.
Contact details:
Tel: (021) 638 3143
Fax: (021) 637 9642
e-mail:
For admission to any of these Centres, please contact TWU’s Admissions Officer on:
(021) 638 3143 or email
Community Outreach: WHALES Programme
Lifeskills Programmes
Basic and advanced lifeskills programmes:
Work skills Programmes
(See also Services to Companies: Employment of People with Intellectual Disability and Assembly Line Production)
Siyanceda National Youth Service Programme
The Siyanceda programme is aimed at involving intellectually disabled youth in voluntary community work, in order to prepare them for the open labour market. This programme also provides participants with training that enables them to earn credits against the National Qualifications Framework, ultimately creating exit opportunities for programme graduates in the from of sustained employment.
40 Trainees are selected from the four TWU training centres’ work skills programmes, based in Athlone, Khayelitsha, Mitchell’s Plain and Retreat. Each trainee undergoes comprehensive training in career skills (e.g. Hygiene & Cleaning, Gardening Services, Caregiving) and related lifeskills, open labour market preparedness training and Sexuality/HIV/Aids Education.
We have 4 Job Coaches who are assisting the trainees in the Siyanceda Programme to bridge the gap between protective and open labour market employment.
Contact details:
The Siyanceda project manager
Tel: (021) 638 3134
Email
For more information visit www. capegateway.gov.za/eng/directories/projects/15150/123667
Integration Company
The next step in our Career Path is to launch our first Integration Company as a Contract Cleaning Company where persons with Intellectual Disability can work within the Open Labour Market and receive market related wages. To assist us to found our Integration Company in April 2007, we have established various partnerships with service providers in Germany and conducted different exchange programmes to equip our staff with the knowledge and expertise needed.
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