UCT's Perinatal Mental Health Project (PMHP) reached a new milestone by screening their 5 000th client recently, an occasion they celebrated at an event on 5 September.

Based at the Mowbray Maternity Hospital, the PMHP has, since its launch in 2002, been tackling the epidemic of mental distress among women living in adversity in South Africa.

Women are screened, and those identified as needing support receive counselling and treatment.

The service is provided free of charge. According to health providers, mental health care is notoriously neglected.

"It was not good enough for our mouths to hang open down to the table," says project head Dr Simone Honikman.

The project has received formal commendation from the World Health Organisation, the Impumelelo Award for innovation and poverty alleviation, and is still going strong.