Focus on psychiatry in France.

The organisation of health care in general and of mental health care in particular is centralised at a national level under the control of the Ministry of Health. Within this ministry, the General Health Directorate (Direction Generale de la Sante ́ ́ ́, DGS) is in charge of public health and care, and chooses public health priorities. The Directorate for Hospitalisation and Organisation of Care (Direction de l’Hospitalisation et de l’Organisation des Soins, DHOS) is in charge of organising the care provided by health structures. Regional structures (Agences Regionales d’Hospitaĺ isation) have recently been introduced to regulate and control the hospital health budget at a regional level, in accordance with priorities defined at a national level. Total health expenditure in 2000 was 9.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) (compared with 7% in the UK). Mental disorders represent the second most costly diseases, accounting for 9.4% of total health expenditure, just after cardiovascular diseases (10.7%) (Direction de la Recherche, des Etudes, de l’Evaluation et des Statistiques (DREES), 2002a).