Mental Health in Public Affairs

Paying for public mental health care: crucial questions.

States' embrace of managed mental health care.

Historically, state mental health authorities have dominated public mental health services, operating with fixed resources and responsible for a large population. A good public mental health system has many of the attributes of a well-managed private mental health system. Unfortunately, public systems are not flexible enough to contract creatively with multiple providers; they lack many of the ...

Public attitudes toward persons with mental illness.

The changing role of the state psychiatric hospital.

State hospitals were once the most prominent components of U.S. public mental health systems. But a major focus of mental health policy over the past fifty years has been to close these facilities. These efforts led to a 95 percent reduction in the country's state hospital population. However, more than 200 state hospitals remain open, serving a declining but challenging patient population. Usi...

A seat at the table: trend or illusion?

Responding to Nancy Tomes's conclusion that mental health consumers are beneficiaries but not primary causes of a new attentiveness to consumers' concerns, this review finds various historical and contemporary reasons for the mental health consumer movement to remain vigilant: the system's shallow acceptance of consumer self-determination; continued reliance on expedient coercive tactics rather...

The role of public policies in reducing mental health status disparities for people of color.

Ethnic and racial disparities in mental health are driven by social factors such as housing, education, and income. Many of these social factors are different for minorities than they are for whites. Policies that address gaps in these social factors therefore can address mental health status disparities. We analyze three policies and their impact on minorities: the Individuals with Disability ...