ABSTRACT
The mental health challenge is to transform systems, attitudes and opportunities. This chapter debates about compulsory treatment; discharge or sectioning decisions are sometimes unsound; patient abuse is from time to time exposed in residential care; arguments abound on vexed and conflicting rights of patients, families and communities. Living with mental illness is tough enough, without the added burden and pain of rejection and stigmatisation. In calling for the Commission to develop its Green Paper into a Framework for Mental Health, the chapter places such a policy on the facts about mental disorder and the Lisbon Agenda imperative for an increased recognition of the value of investment in mental well-being. Mental health really only penetrates the political and public mind when there is a crisis. If the public believe, they will put pressure on the European Union (EU) to act. If the EU acts, they will make public belief possible.
