Better Mental Health Care

Description

A concise guide to establishing, developing and evaluating modern mental health services, providing the relevant evidence to support necessary choices between alternative models of care. It includes a step-by-step guide to what to do and how to do it, taking into account the needs of people with mental illnesses in the general population, the available resources, and the main policy requirements. It also gives readers practical resources to assist them in their role in establishing and developing mental health services with examples of best practice taken from countries world-wide. In addition, key relevant issues such as international agreements on human rights and guidelines on best practice to reduce stigma and discrimination are explained.

Graham Thornicroft is Professor of Community Psychiatry and Head of the Health Service and Population Research Department, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK. Michele Tansella is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Verona, Italy.

'This book goes beyond deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients to describe a systematic approach at the hospital, community, and individual level for better addressing the needs of persons with different levels of illness. ... Clear lists, charts, and graphs make this book quite practical.' Patricia E. Murphy, Rush University Medical Centre 'My first thought on picking up this attractively packaged book was a curious one: what is this book going to tell me? ... What in the end did impress me most was that, without enormous detail, it touched on most aspects of mental health care from the level of the individual clinician and patient to the level of the nation and supra-national organizations.' Psychological Medicine '... a highly relevant topic ... This is an important book and is recommended reading for anyone wishing to gain a good understanding of the overriding areas that need to be considered for the future planning of mental health care.' Perspectives in Public Health