BACKGROUND This paper discusses the role of public inquiries as an instrument of public policy-making in New Zealand, using mental health as a case study. The main part of the paper analyses the processes and outcomes of five general inquiries into the state of New Zealand's mental health services that were held between 1858 and 1996. RESULTS The membership, form, style and processes used by ...

Objectives: Social participation is linked to healthy aging and the maintenance of functional independence in older individuals. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between social participation and orderly’s mental health. Methods: Totally 380 people, aged over 60 residing in city of Hamadan were participated in the study. The participants completed a researcher-tailored i...

BACKGROUND Although most donor and development agency attention is focussed on communicable diseases in Kenya, the importance of non-communicable diseases including mental health and mental illness is increasingly apparent, both in their own right and because of their influence on health, education and social goals. Mental illness is common but the specialist service is extremely sparse and pri...

1 Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom, 2 Sangath, Goa, India, 3 Departments of Epidemiology and International Mental Health Policy, WHO Collaborating Centre, Kings College London, Institute of Psychiatry, London, United Kingdom, 4 Centre for Public Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Universit...

The recent economic crisis has led to many negative consequences, not the least having to do with the mental health and well-being of the populations involved. Although some researchers say it is still too early to speak about a relationship between the economic crisis and a rise in mental health problems resulting in suicides, there is solid evidence for the existence of such a relationship. H...

Public health is intimately related to social justice, which is why practice and research in the field seek to improve the social determinants of health. Despite the best intentions of those working in public health, however, some policies and practices inadvertently further disadvantage pre-existing marginalized populations. In this paper, we provide a diagnosis of possible reasons why this ph...

In 2004, voters in California approved Proposition 63 for passage of the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). From that time until 2014, over $13 billion in the state's tax revenue was allocated for public mental health services. There is very little information available to answer critical questions such as these: How much of this amount was spent in the interests of older adult mental health? W...

Neuropsychiatric disorders and suicide amount to 12.7% of the global burden of disease and related conditions (GBD) according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates for 1999, and recognition of the enormous component of mental illness in the GBD has attracted unprecedented attention in the field of international health. Focusing on low- and middle-income countries with high adult mortalit...

Policies to promote public health are based on trust. There is a danger that public trust may be lost, especially where policies are seen to be influenced by vested interests or conflict with available evidence. Although trust in public health policies in the UK is high, some commentators have questioned recent responses to the threat of pandemic flu, suggesting that they may be driven, in part...

BACKGROUND Substantial policy, communication and operational gaps exist between mental health services and the police for individuals with enduring mental health needs. AIMS To map and cost pathways through mental health and police services, and to model the cost impact of implementing key policy recommendations. METHOD Within a case-linkage study, we estimated 1-year individual-level healt...