Modernizing Mental Health Services in the Global North

Abstract

Chapter 8 discussed the state of play in mental health in the Global North and the way the Euro-American mental health system, with its bio-medical psychiatry, is being spread across the world. This chapter considers how mental health services in the West, mainly looking at UK and North America, could be updated and modernized to meet the needs of its multicultural society, conscious of the need to involve at all levels people who use services—‘nothing about us without us’ (Charlton, 2000). My personal experience has been primarily in the British National Health Service (NHS) that is funded by general taxation and free at the point of access to all who use it; and I have very limited knowledge of services in the private sector in the UK and even less of services in North America. In my travels and discussions with professionals outside the UK, I have surmised that the organization and delivery of mental health services in some parts of Europe and North America, such as The Netherlands and Canada, although resourced via insurance schemes, seem to be experienced in ways similar to those in UK—essentially available free to all who use them. Therefore, the suggestions for change made in this chapter, although specifically geared to suit NHS services and draw on my knowledge of these over many years, apply elsewhere in Euro-America too, although not in the private (for-profit) sector.