ABSTRACT
As civilization evolved so have laws and attitudes to the treatment of the mentally ill. Attitudes to mental health care and legislation can be traced back to Hippocrates – Patriarch of Greek medicine. More recently, governments across the world have had to respond to an ever-expanding evidence base, and rapid political and policy changes, and most importantly more emphasis on the rights of the individual to free choice. This chapter describes the evolution of four models of mental health legislation in England, Malta, New Zealand and China. It also captures the policy context which sets the tone for the use of mental health legislation (see Chapter 9).
