Half a century ago, governments around the world ditched their old psychiatric hospitals for something they said would work better. It didn’t.

Australia has a poor record in treating the massive mental health problems in the population. More and more money is spent, without achieving any overall improvement in either the mental health of the community or in the performance of services.

Psychiatric hospitals were also seen to be expensive, so the switch to community-based care was seen as a welcome cost-saving measure by state governments. In fact, as we now know, the opposite was the case. Expenditure continued to grow and the quality of services declined and fragmented.

Growth in community treatment was far slower than the decline in hospital-based care, much of which was transferred to general hospitals. We are left now with a system that is fragmented, inadequate, expensive and failing.

This post examines what went wrong with the great leap forward half a century ago … and what could be done now to create a mental health system that is finally fit for purpose.

Read the full article: