KwaZulu-Natal's First Child Mental Health Unit

Thanks to your support, we continue to make meaningful progress towards establishing KwaZulu-Natal’s first dedicated inpatient Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit. The new 36-bed facility, being developed within the historic KwaZulu-Natal Children’s Hospital, will provide specialised care for children and adolescents with mental health conditions. Over the past few months, the project progressed to the fully coordinated Design Documentation stage, with all engineering inputs integrated into the architectural design. This stage has been approved at provincial level. The contractor has been appointed and is now established on site. The project has also secured its heritage permit, allowing work to proceed on the Main Old Children’s Hospital Building.

The need for this facility remains immense. KwaZulu-Natal is home to approximately 4.3 million children, yet there are currently only eight public-sector inpatient mental health beds for adolescents in the entire province - and none for younger children. An estimated 88% of children with mental health conditions do not have access to treatment, while only two child and adolescent psychiatrists serve the public health sector. For many families, specialist mental health care is simply unavailable when it is needed most.

Your donations are helping us bridge this gap. Contributions received through GlobalGiving are supporting these critical planning, design and approval stages required before building can begin, bringing the project significantly closer to implementation. We are now focused on securing final approvals at a national level to enable our architects to complete the construction documentation needed to commence building works. Once complete, the unit will include dedicated wards, counselling and consultation rooms, occupational therapy spaces and family-friendly visiting areas designed to support recovery and healing.

Thank you for believing in this project and helping us create a future where vulnerable children and adolescents can access the specialist mental health care they need, free of charge. Every contribution is bringing KwaZulu-Natal’s first dedicated Child and Adolescent Mental Health Unit closer to reality. We look forward to sharing further milestones with you soon.

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