BACKGROUND Policies generate accountability in that they offer a standard against which government performance can be assessed. A central question of this study is whether ideological imprint left by policy is realized in the time following its adoption. National mental health policy expressly promotes the notion of deinstitutionalization, which mandates that individuals be cared for in the com...

doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1002-0829.2012.03.008 Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA *Correspondence: [email protected] Quietly, with little apparent notice from even the strongest advocates for global mental health, China is undertaking the world’s largest – and arguably most important – mental health services demonstration project, a project ...

An important framework for understanding a social problem is to examine it through the lens of hybrid policy analysis model. Doing so will help an analyst, a policy developer, or reformer to not only appreciate the background but also understand the condition and direction of an existing policy for the purpose of reformation. This paper utilizes a hybrid policy model to analyse Nigerian mental ...

Concerns about violent conduct of service users towards healthcare staff have prompted a ;zero tolerance' policy within the National Health Service. This policy specifically excludes users of mental health services. We attempt to challenge artificial distinctions between users of mental health and other services, and propose an ethical underpinning to the implementation of this policy.

On the basis of epidemiological survey findings, anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorders around the world and are associated with significant comorbidity and morbidity. Such surveys rely on advances in psychiatric nosology and may also contribute usefully to revisions of the nosology. There are a number of questions at the intersection of psychiatric epidemiology and nosology....

The field of public mental health has been defined by an expert group convened by the Nordic School of Public Health (NHV) as encompassing the experience, occurrence, distribution and trajectories of positive mental health and mental health problems and their determinants; mental health promotion and prevention of mental disorders; as well as mental health system policies, governance and organi...

It gives me great pleasure to participate in the launch of this inaugural issue of Global Mental Health as an Associate Editor for Policy and Systems. In my capacity as the Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research at WHO, I have been privileged to witness the expansion of Health Policy and Systems Research and its increasing relevance and impact in other fields,...

Background: Mental health care in the United Kingdom is rapidly changing, but many commentators, particularly sociologists and psychologists, view systems as remaining wedded to a medical model and not ‘‘fit for purpose’’. If services are to improve, the way that mental health problems are understood by the services providing care needs to change radically. Aims: To illustrate how a psychologic...

Infant and early childhood mental health practices can be supported by policies and professional standards of care that foster the healthy development of young children. Policies that support infants and toddlers include those that strengthen their families to provide a family environment that promotes mental wellness. Policy issues for infants, toddlers, and young children have come to the for...