ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the fundamental issue of how to deliver effective mental health services in a multicultural context. It proposes that providing quality and equality in mental health services requires skilful managers as well as skilful clinicians. It is about recognizing management as an essential skill and discipline in the delivery of quality health care. The theoretical study of management and managers has a long history. As Drucker says, the functions of management include planning, organizing, motivating, performance measurement and the development of people (Drucker, in Stewart, 1963).A working definition of management is given to us by Brech as: ‘planning and regulating (or guiding) the activities of an enterprise in relation to its procedures, and to the duties or tasks of its personnel’ (Brech, in Stewart, 1963).
