Breaking the Silence on Mental Health with SADAG

In this special PODCASTHON episode, Lauren Davis explores the critical intersection of mental health stigma and access to care. Featuring the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), this episode reveals how 1 in 8 people worldwide live with mental health conditions yet remain trapped in silence due to both internal stigma and systemic barriers to care. Discover how SADAG's innovative work, including their 24-hour crisis line, support groups, and revolutionary "speaking books" that translate mental health education into multiple languages, is creating real change in South Africa and what we can all do to help bridge the gap between "I'm not okay" and accessing help.

You can access SADAG's support portal here:

https://www.sadag.org/#

And reach their support hotline here: 

Crisis helpline: 0800 567

Mental Health help line: 0800 456 789

SMS line: 31393

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Transcript

Lauren Davis (00:00)
The World Health Organization estimates that one in eight of us is living with a mental health condition. Think about that. That means that someone in your life, someone you had a conversation with this week, someone you work with, someone sitting across the dinner table from you is probably not okay. And there's a good chance they haven't told anyone about it. Not necessarily because they don't want to get any help, but because the gap between I'm not okay,

And actually accessing help is much wider and more complex than many of us realize. And for many staying quiet actually feels safer than speaking up. So that's what today's episode is all about. I'm Lauren Davis, and this is Beneath the Busy, the podcast where we look beneath the surface at what really shapes how we live and lead.

And today is a very special episode. This week, thousands of podcasters across the globe are participating in something called Podcastathon, an initiative where each host dedicates an episode to a charity they believe in, all released at the same time. The idea being that if enough voices say the same thing at the same time, the messages become harder to ignore. So I'm delighted to share that the organization I've chosen to support today is

the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, also known as SADAC. And the reason for choosing this organization is because the work that they do sits exactly at the intersection of what I'm most passionate about. And frankly, two things that I think we are still doing really badly in the world today. There is still a huge silence around mental health and mental illness that keeps people silent and prevents people from accessing the help that they need. And the second is access, access to mental health care.

Because even if people do speak up and say that they're not okay, for many, actually getting access to support becomes the blocker. So, SayDag works directly in this gap, consistently, concretely, and at a huge scale. But before I get into it, as always, let's just take a moment to pause.

Just stop whatever you're doing.

Focus on your breath for a moment.

Take a deep breath in.

and out.

Unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, relax your stomach.

And whatever you've carried in with you to this conversation, just put it down for the next 10, 15 minutes. This conversation really deserves your full presence. And quite frankly, so do you. So let's start with the stigma or more specifically with the silence. Mental health is shrouded in silence in our world today. And often when we think about mental health stigma, we typically think more broadly in terms of the cultural stereotypes.

the outdated beliefs or even other people's ignorance. But what we're less comfortable in acknowledging is how the stigma actually sits within us in our internal narrative around not being okay. The decision we make to not share the fact that you haven't been sleeping well or to use the excuse of I'm just tired to explain your low mood or your irritability or to apportion your low concentration to just being stressed.

or even convincing ourselves that it's not that bad. We've just got to push through. Everybody else is struggling. When actually intuitively we know something is really off, but we choose to ignore it because in some way we might believe that admitting that we're not coping mentally could feel like we're weak or we're just afraid of the judgment from other people. Or sometimes we just don't want the pity from others or we fear being passed over in our career.

if we mentioned these things. And for some of us, we don't speak out, we don't admit it to ourselves and we don't speak out because we don't want to feel like a burden to others. And so yes, there's the external stigmas and stereotypes that exist that definitely contribute to the silence around mental health. But I think we've all internalized those. And whilst we might say it's okay for other people to not be okay, it's not okay for me not to be okay. I have to just persevere. I have to push through.

I have to be strong-willed in order to keep going. The problem is, is that mental distress rarely announces itself with major drama. It silently erodes our capability, our ability to function well, our capacity to experience joy in life. And so whilst internally we might be crumbling, externally we look like we're somebody that's functioning. We keep delivering, we keep parenting, we keep supporting others. Basically we just keep showing up.

irrespective of what's happening internally. And this slow erosion with the silence of not speaking up slowly leads to tragedy. And so on the one hand is the silence where we're not speaking out. We don't feel safe to speak out. The other part is even if we get to a point where we're admitting to ourselves that we're not okay and we're ready to break the silence and we even do, we speak out, we say we need help. Actually accessing that help is pretty complicated at the moment.

Often it's so complicated and it's harder than it should be because many people don't even know where to start. Firstly, they don't know if what they're experiencing is serious enough or bad enough to warrant help. Even if they think that they do need help, they don't really know where to go, where to start, who to consult with. And then there's the challenge of actual access. So in most countries, public mental health care is

incredibly overstretched, very limited amount of actual professionals available for service, which leads to long waiting lists, inadequate care. And then if we move into the more underserviced areas, underprivileged areas, minority group areas, the services become scarcer and scarcer. And so access also isn't equal and not just access to the services, but also in terms of the language that we use. Often the literature available around mental health care,

or mental health conditions is quite clinical or it's in a language that many people don't understand. so access to care or limitations to access to care is not only due to socioeconomic reasons, it's geographical, it's cultural, it's language. And then even for those people that can afford private medical care, there's still barriers because it's incredibly expensive. Medical insurances only provide limited cover if any, and most mental health practitioners are booked up

months in advance. And so what we're actually dealing with is the silence on the one hand, and then the barrier to access to care on the other hand, and this is where people just start to fall through the cracks. And so that's where SADAC comes in. The South African Depression and Anxiety Group was founded in 1994 by Zane Wilson. She's an incredibly inspiring woman who started this organization because of her own experience with limited insight.

and silence around her own mental health conditions and then also limited access to care. And so she started this organization mainly as a patient advocacy group in 1994, and it has now grown into a national support organization. And they do a wide range of things. They run a 24 hour crisis line, which is absolutely invaluable where there's a real human being at the other end of a telephone.

They also offer numerous support groups in person virtually across the country, which really helps people feel supported in community and not alone. And they do a lot of psycho education in workplaces, in schools, in communities. Their focus is both urban and particularly in the rural areas. So they reach really widely in our country. And all of that is incredible. The number of people that they reach through all their interventions is absolutely inspiring.

And the thing that really stands out for me on top of all of that amazing work is something that they started years ago called the speaking books. Because what they realized is that for many people, access to mental health care is limited by language. Many can't read. And even if they can read most of the literature, the psychoeducation literature is in a language that they can't understand. And so what they created were these books that actually speak.

What is written in the book, there's a button that you can push and it narrates that. And they've translated it into all the South African languages and some European languages too. So it creates huge access to psycho education, which is absolutely incredible. So they really epitomize democratizing access to mental health care. And they've been doing this for over 30 years. So they don't just break down the stigma, but they also make sure that when somebody reaches out for help, there is somebody there to support them.

in a language that they understand and at a time that they need it. That's just unbelievable. So that's actually what democratizing access to care looks like. They don't just tell people that they should ask for help. They make sure that there is somebody there to help you in a language that's accessible to you and at a time that you need it. And so this kind of support that they offer is not just a service that I admire, but it is something that has become integral in the work that I do because our work

internationally, locally, with many different organizations where people are still suffering in silence. And yet I'm being asked to talk about psychological safety, burnout, anxiety, mental health in the workplace. So raising awareness is starting to become more popular, especially in the, the organizational space, but often it stops at just awareness raising. People still don't know where to access support or what the appropriate support is or even

how to get there. And so what I've realized in my work is that focusing on increasing awareness and reducing the stigma and increasing access to care are two critical points to ensuring that people actually get the help that they need. Because when they fall through the gap, the impact isn't only on the individual. When somebody becomes mentally unwell, their whole system feels the impact, their families, their workplace, their communities. So mental illness is not just an individual thing. It's actually a collective issue.

But the reality is we can't fix this whole system alone, but there is something we can each do individually. And so if you're in South Africa, I encourage you to save the say dag number. You might never need it, but somebody in your life might. And then you'll be able to offer them that support. Their toll free number is in the show notes. And for everyone, whether you're in South Africa or not, what you can do is normalize the conversation around not being okay. Make it okay for people to talk to you about how they're feeling.

And that often starts with being honest with how you're feeling and knowing that it's okay to not be okay and really mean it. And if somebody shares with you that they're not okay, don't swoop in to try and fix it automatically or dismiss it. Be there to listen and then help them access the right support that they need. And if you're in a position to support organizations like SADAC or any other mental health organizations in your area, whether it's financially or as a volunteer or...

just raising awareness about the fact that they exist, I really encourage you to do that because you're helping to shrink that gap. You're helping to minimize the struggle between I'm not okay and here's the help that you can get. And so before we close, I just wanna leave you with one question and I just want you to sit with it for a little bit before you just.

End the podcast and move on to your next thing. Get busy with the next thing. Just think about if you were to take one thing away from what you've heard today, what would that be and what would you do about it? And just start there. Just one small thing, whether it's a conversation with someone, whether it's reading up more about mental illnesses, whether it's about reaching out to Sadag to find out if you can volunteer or donate, or whether it's just about sitting and being honest with yourself around how you're feeling and starting to break that silence. Just one small thing.

will make a huge impact. And if you want to explore any of the other charities that are being highlighted this week through the podcast, then you can visit their website, podcast, then.org. The website link will also be in the show notes and have a look at the other incredible charities that are being showcased this week. And as always, it's okay to not be okay, but it's not okay to stay that way. You are not alone. And if you've learned anything from today, help is always available. Be well and take care until next time.