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- The 2021/2022 Child Gauge has raised concerns about the mental health of children.
- The report states that factors that threaten children's mental health include poverty, unstable home environments, violence and discrimination.
- The report suggests that children's well-being should be at the centre of policymaking.
Concerns about the neglected mental health of children and the effects of leaving it untreated have been raised in the 2021/2022 Child Gauge.
The report, the 16th annual review of the state of the country's children, was published by the Children's Institute at the University of Cape Town, in partnership with Unicef South Africa.
It warns: "When we fail an individual child, the lifetime and intergenerational impact is felt at a societal level. The costs of not intervening and of not strengthening support systems for vulnerable children and families are huge.
"Investing early is a moral imperative but investing early is also perhaps the best investment that can be made in the generational health of our society. Ensuring that children thrive now will yield benefits in later generations as thriving children become parents themselves."
It states that the threats to children's mental health include poverty, food insecurity, inequality, discrimination, violence, orphanhood, climate change, forced migration and other humanitarian emergencies, and that families play a pivotal role in children's mental health.
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It was suggested that investments are needed to have essential child and adolescent mental health services and to put children's health at the centre of all of the country's policymaking.
"The intergenerational impact of trauma, poverty and mental ill health forces us to take an incredibly long view of well-being – much like how in the Middle Ages it took seven generations of a family to build a cathedral.
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"The foundations of healthy adulthood are laid in childhood and adolescence, and the core of our humanity lies in our mental well-being and our capacity for healthy engagement with others. The [Covid-19] pandemic is a minor dress rehearsal for what climate breakdown portends.
"The children and adolescents of today are going to have to live with the consequences of our actions – and our failures. We have a brief window of opportunity to act and put children at the centre of all that we do, to harness their energy, curiosity and clarity of thought, and to build resilient communities, better able to withstand the challenges to come."
