OBJECTIVE This paper identifies the key barriers to mental health policy implementation in Ghana and suggests ways of overcoming them. METHOD The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Quantitatively, the WHO Mental Health Policy and Plan Checklist and the WHO Mental Health Legislation Checklist were employed to analyse the content of mental health policy, plans and legislation...

BACKGROUND State-based laws for reporting of health care-associated infections (HAI) have developed and changed dramatically in recent years, affecting the costs of reporting and impact on infection rates. It is necessary for practitioners of infection control to understand these changing legal frameworks and their application to practice. METHODS Employing systematic state-based research, th...

In this article the legal limitations in the practice of the primary health care nurse in the Republic of South Africa, having direct implications for the achievement of the goal: "Health for all by the year 2000", are explored and described. The questions which had to be answered by means of the research are in relation to the nature and scope of the limitations obstructing the practice of the...

In the nineteenth century legislation concerning health care in Greece did not differ from that in the Netherlands, derived as it was from the French example in both cases. This article contains a comparison of the organisation and the effects of (public) health care in the Dutch city of Groningen and the Greek city of Piraeus, cities which in the course of the nineteenth century reached about ...

It seemed inconceivable that Vermont would not enact comprehensive health care reform in 1994. Two years earlier the Vermont legislature had created the Vermont Health Care Authority to prepare the groundwork for major reform. Yet the 1994 Vermont General Assembly could not reach agreement on legislation. What went wrong? Some on the political left and right say that the legislature stopped "ba...

BACKGROUND Sharing knowledge and experience internationally can provide valuable information, and comparative research can make an important contribution to knowledge about health care and cost-effective use of resources. Descriptions of the organisation of health care in different countries can be found, but no studies have specifically compared the legal and formal organisational systems in S...