This handbook is the definitive resource for understanding current mental health policy controversies, options, and implementation strategies. It offers a thorough review of major issues in mental health policy to inform the policy-making process, presenting the pros and cons of controversial, significant issues through close analyses of data. Some of the topics covered are the effectiveness of various biomedical and psychosocial interventions, the role of mental illness in violence, and the effectiveness of coercive strategies. The handbook presents cases for conditions in which specialized mental health services are needed and those in which it might be better to deliver mental health treatment in mainstream health and social services settings. It also examines the balance between federal, state, and local authority, and the financing models for delivery of efficient and effective mental health services. It is aimed for an audience of policy-makers, researchers, and informed citizens that can contribute to future policy deliberations.

"What is commonly referred to in the U.S. as the "mental health care system" is not really a system at all. While excellent programs exist in every state, in every community across America the "system" is actually a set of fragmented services provided inequitably by a haphazard array of specialty providers, often with inadequate resources and only tenuously connected to health care systems for other health needs. Crisis is too often the first point of contact for people experiencing a mental illness, while year-over-year increases in rates of anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, and death from suicide and overdose have led many to characterize the current situation as a 'pandemic' or 'epidemic' of mental illness, constituting a 'national emergency.' For youth and young adults, in late 2021 this emergency was formally recognized by the U.S. Surgeon General in the first Advisory ever issued regarding the nation's mental health"--

With new chapters on key topics such as mental health, the environment, race, ethnicity and health, and pharmaceuticals, this new edition maintains its multidisciplinary framework and bridges the gap between health policy and the sociology of health. It builds upon the success of the first by encompassing a range of issues, studies, and disciplines. The broad coverage of topics in addition to new chapters present an engagement with contemporary issues, resulting in a valuable teaching aid. This second edition brings together a diverse range of leading international scholars with contributors from Australia, Puerto-Rico, USA, Guatemala, Germany, Sri Lanka, Botswana, UK, South Sudan, Mexico, South Korea, Canada and more. The second edition of this Handbook remains a key resource for undergraduates, post-graduates, and researchers across multidisciplinary backgrounds including: medicine, health and social care, sociology, and anthropology. PART ONE: Culture, Society and Health PART TWO: Lived Experiences PART THREE: Health Care Systems, Access and Use PART FOUR: Health in Environmental and Planetary Context

This handbook incisively explores challenges and opportunities that exist in efforts aimed at addressing inequities in mental health provision across the globe. Drawing on various disciplines across the humanities, psychology, and social sciences it charts the emergence of Global Mental Health as a field of study. It critically reflects on efforts and interventions being made to globalize mental health policies, and discusses key themes relevant for understanding and supporting the mental health needs of people living in diverse socio-economical and cultural environments. Over three rich sections, the handbook critically engages with Global Mental Health discourses. To help guide future efforts to support mental health and wellbeing in different parts of the world, the third section of the handbook consists of case studies of innovative mental health policy and practice, which are presented from a variety of different perspectives. This seminal handbook will appeal to a transnational community of post-graduate students, academics and practitioners, from global health to transcultural psychiatry and medical anthropology. It will be also of interest to researchers and clinical practitioners, policy makers and non-governmental organisations involved in cross-cultural mental health work.

Starting with more general issues of healthcare policy and governance in a global perspective and using the lens of national case studies of healthcare reform, this handbook addresses key themes in the debates over changing healthcare policy.

This issue of Psychiatric Clinics, guest edited by Drs. Altha J. Stewart and Ruth Shim is entitled Achieving Mental Health Equity. This issue is one of four each year selected by our series consulting editor, Dr. Harsh Trivedi of Sheppard Pratt Health System. Topics in this issue include: The Business Case for Mental Health Equity; Shifting the Policy Paradigm to Achieve Equity; Clinical Considerations in an Equitable Mental Health Care System; Training Psychiatrists to Achieve Mental Health Equity; The Role of Organized Psychiatry; A Consumer and Family Perspective on mental health equity; as well as mental health equity for: Criminal Justice, Child and Adolescents, Addictions, Collaborative Care, and Community Psychiatry.

This is a vital resource for anyone looking to better support people with psychosis and serious mental illnesses.

Helping Soldiers Heal tells the story of the US Army's transformation from a disparate collection of poorly standardized, largely disconnected clinics into one of the nation's leading mental health care systems. It is a step-by-step guidebook for military and civilian health care systems alike. Jayakanth Srinivasan and Christopher Ivany provide a unique insider-outsider perspective as key participants in the process, sharing how they confronted the challenges firsthand and helped craft and guide the unfolding change. The Army's system was being overwhelmed with mental health problems among soldiers and their family members, impeding combat readiness. The key to the transformation was to apply the tenets of "learning" health care systems. Building a learning health care system is hard; building a learning mental health care system is even harder. As Helping Soldiers Heal recounts, the Army overcame the barriers to success, and its experience is full of lessons for any health care system seeking to transform.

"Forensic social work is a unique practice field that interfaces with criminal justice or legal systems at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels of practice. This Handbook provides important reference content while exploring the multiple facets of the justice system, the differential nature of people, families, and communities navigating it, and the various ways social workers interface with the criminal justice system and associated client populations. The Handbook is an accessible resource for social workers that synthesizes current research and practice in forensic areas"--

This practical and research-based volume focuses on how libraries can meet the needs of underserved patrons in college and university libraries, with an emphasis on those facing trauma, abuse, and discrimination. While university libraries strive to meet the needs of all students, some groups have traditionally been overlooked. This volume engages with those underserved populations on college campuses, with an emphasis on those facing trauma, abuse, and discrimination. It brings a variety of authorial voices to discuss different aspects of that service and to share current research related to underserved populations in libraries. This combination supports research in LIS and beyond while offering concrete ways for service providers to make a difference in the lives of their patrons. Editors Skinner and Gross have both conducted extensive research in ethically meeting patron needs. They and their contributors are keenly aware of the complex and interwoven considerations that inform such service, such as patron desire for confidentiality accompanied by an urgent need for assistance. This volume is committed to sharing diverse voices in the field and to exploring the interrelationship between theoretical findings and practical applications—all in the service of underserved patrons.