Universal Health Coverage And The Lives It Touches

Universal health coverage matters deeply when you work with people who live with addiction and mental distress every day. You see quickly who gets help and who is left waiting at the margins.

When care is easy to reach and grounded in respect, people start to trust that their lives are worth fighting for, and that their story deserves the same attention as any other health condition.

Why Addiction Care Belongs At The Heart Of Healthcare

Many people who develop substance use problems also carry experiences of trauma, loss, or long periods of untreated anxiety and low mood. When care is out of reach, the strain spreads into families, friendships, workplaces, and communities.

In South Africa and across the region, mental health and addiction services often operate with limited staff, limited funding, and long waiting times. The result is a visible gap between the number of people who need support and the number who are actually able to receive it. Families step in to fill that space, frequently without guidance, which leaves them overwhelmed and unsure how to move forward.

That’s why when we speak about universal health coverage, we are also speaking about closing this gap so that support for addiction and mental health sits alongside other forms of medical care rather than being treated as something separate.

What The Treatment Gap Looks Like In Everyday Life

The treatment gap shows up in very human ways. People bounce between short consultations, emergency visits, and well-meaning advice, without anyone taking a full look at what they are facing. They hear that services are full or that they should try again later, and over time, many stop asking.

Families notice the slow slide. They see a loved one losing work, friendships, and health, while feeling they have nowhere solid to turn. They pull together money, energy, and time, often beyond what they can afford.

A Message To Families And Loved Ones

If you are supporting someone who lives with addiction you may feel responsible for keeping them safe and for holding the family together. You may lie awake at night wondering if you have done enough or fearing the next phone call. These feelings are understandable and you are not alone in them.

Families are often the quiet front line of addiction. Universal health coverage matters for you as well as for the person you love. When compassionate, professional help is easier to access, families do not have to carry the weight on their own and can begin to heal alongside their loved one.

To The Person Who Is Trying To Hold It Together

If you recognise yourself in these words, perhaps you are living with alcohol or drug use that feels out of control, or you move between periods of abstinence and relapse. You might tell yourself that other people have it worse or that you need to keep going without asking for help.

Our message to you is simple. Wanting support is not a weakness. Needing care is part of being human.

The idea of universal health coverage reinforces this. It is a reminder that everyone deserves access to respectful, safe, and effective care for mental health and addiction, not only those who can afford private treatment or those who have reached a crisis point.

What Real Addiction Care Makes Possible

Good addiction care gives patients a safe, structured space to understand why they use, to rebuild their health and to practise new ways of coping with stress, pain and everyday life.

In this kind of care, a person is not treated as “the addiction” but as a whole human being. Their physical health is stabilised. Their thoughts and emotions are explored in therapy. Their routines, sleep, work and relationships are taken into account. Families are included so they can heal and learn how to support without burning out. There is also planning for what happens after treatment, so they are not left alone the moment they walk out the door.

Seeing Universal Health Coverage Through Our Daily Work

When we think about universal health coverage, we think of the people sitting across from us at Liberty Home and of the families who arrive with them, exhausted, scared and still holding on to a small thread of hope. Every day we see how much can change once someone has a safe, structured place to heal, and it is painful to know that this kind of care remains out of reach for so many.

On Universal Health Coverage Day we name that reality honestly. Many people still live with addiction and mental distress without real support, and that feels deeply unfair. We keep working with the conviction that recovery is possible and that no one should be turned away from care because of shame, silence or lack of money.