Creating Capabilities through Maternal Mental Health Interventions: A Case Study at Hanover Park, Cape Town

In South Africa, approximately one third of resource‐poor women experience mental illness during pregnancy. Prevalence is higher in low‐resource settings than in developed countries. The poverty–mental illness cycle is well documented. Through the capabilities approach, this paper locates maternal mental illness in a development framework and explores the deprivational impacts of mental illness. It describes a counselling intervention in South Africa as a case study and applies a qualitative content analysis to descriptive data of a sample of five typical clients. Findings suggest that integrated maternal mental health care may act as a strategic intervention for capability formation and sustainable development. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.