Mental health care delivery - Isaac M. Marks

The provision of effective mental health services, at a reasonable cost, to all sections of the population is one of the most pressing problems facing clinicians, planners and administrators of mental health services in the industrialised countries. Changes in paradigms for mental health care delivery are accelerating, and are likely to culminate in the 1990s in major shifts in many countries. This book reviews the emerging patterns of health care delivery in different western countries, outlining the innovations of recent years and analysing some of the impediments to their full implementation. The contributors are all prominent experts in mental health services, whose chapters comprise an up-to-date account of many of the most important issues in mental health care delivery today. The text falls into three sections. Part I describes a number of innovations in the community care of psychiatric patients, including programmes for psychotic patients, primary care based psychiatric services for non-psychotics and emergency services in community settings. Part II examines the main impediments to their systematic implementation whether sociopolitical, administrative, economic or professional. Part III integrates the book, provides an overview, and details some specific issues in the implementation of innovation in mental health care delivery.