Mental Health Policy and Governance

  • Joan Busfield
Chapter

Abstract

Policy-makers in the mental health field, including governments and professionals, have to try to deal with a range of issues that are sometimes in tension and conflict. A key issue that has often dominated policy objectives is to provide some means of controlling the actual and potential dangerousness of those who have severe mental health problems and are in lay terms ‘mad’. This is an especial problem given that the public very frequently sees the dan- gers posed as greater than they are in reality and tends to blame professionals if they have not detained someone who then commits a violent crime. Hence policy-makers feel the need to respond to the fears of the public as well as to the actual risks of dangerous and disruptive behaviour that some individuals with a severe mental illness may present, and have typically used mechanisms such as compulsory powers of detention and, more recently, compulsory com- munity treatment orders (CTOs) in order to do so — compulsory powers that are ultimately subject to legal oversight.

Keywords

Mental Health Mental Illness Mental Health Problem Common Mental Disorder Mental Health Policy 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Joan Busfield 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Joan Busfield
    • 1
  1. 1.University of EssexUK

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