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Chapter 8 - Mental Health Services and Policy in the United Kingdom

from Section 1 - Social Exclusion, Poverty, and Inequality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2022

Jed Boardman ,
Helen Killaspy  and
Gillian Mezey
Jed Boardman
Affiliation:
King's College London
Helen Killaspy
Affiliation:
University College London
Gillian Mezey
Affiliation:
St George's Hospital Medical School, University of London
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Summary

Here we examine governmental policies that affect how people with mental health conditions are treated in society. The development of UK mental health services has been closely associated with the evolution of social policies, the increasing role of the state in the provisions for the population’s well-being, and the ‘Welfare State’. The provision of poor relief, dating from the Elizabethan Poor Law to its Victorian revision, has dominated the care of people with mental health conditions, both within and outside of institutions. Until the nineteenth century, the British state played a minimal role in the care of mental ill-health, and the 1800s witnessed a substantial growth in publicly funded asylums. These County Asylums were Poor Law institutions and remained so into the twentieth century. The UK’s modern mental health services arose from the Beveridge welfare state reforms but carried with them much of the baggage of the Victorian Poor Laws. The close relationship between the welfare state and mental health services illustrates the importance of social policy provision relating to income, employment, housing, education, health, and personal social services, to the broader provision of services for people with mental health conditions and the running of effective mental health services.

Keywords

Welfare StatePoor LawsCounty AsylumsCommunity CareMental Health PolicyMental Health Act
Type
Chapter
Information
Social Inclusion and Mental Health
Understanding Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion
 , pp. 161 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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