ABSTRACT
Fifty years ago, almost all psychiatric services were delivered in psychiatric hospitals. Today, most of these have been demolished, replaced by smaller ‘mental health units’ and scattered around the ‘natural community’. Many other forms of care, support and therapy of different kinds are delivered by a range of agencies, many based within the private, charitable or nongovernmental sectors. The nature of the services on offer has changed, in part as a response to changing philosophies. However, the way we think about ‘mental health’ is a function of changing social attitudes.
