International Handbook On Mental Health Policy

This international handbook is the first to analyze mental health policies systematically across a variety of both developed and developing countries. Mental health and public policy experts survey current policies, the public policy process, and critical issues in twenty countries that are representative of different problems.

The work considers the treatment of the mentally ill and mentally retarded, mentally disordered offenses, questions of substance abuse, deinstitutionalization, funding, and consumer rights. This major reference, with its comprehensive and comparative survey, is designed for scholars, students, and professionals who deal with mental health and public policy issues.

Review: This volume gives us a comprehensive look at mental health policy in countries throughout the world. Twenty national contexts are described in terms of the geographic, demographic, historical, societal, and cultural frameworks which contribute to their particular mental health policies, and the policy processes through which they were developed.

There are clear expositions of major issues which affect mental health policy today, including the state of epidemiological studies and adequate national statistics, the organization of mental health services and access to them, the allocation of financial and other resources, the relationships of policies regarding mental health and those concerned with mental retardation, substance abuse and mentally disordered offenders, and the significance of the consumer ('user') and civil rights movement within each country. -from the Foreword by Eugene W.

Brody, M.D., D.Sc. Secretary General, World Federation for Mental Health