ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part explores the variety of present-day institutions and programs. It shows that professional and governmental bodies had notions of community involvement which were far from the democratic process of community control. Concern for the rights of mental patients has been an important force in recent mental health policy and treatment. Perhaps more than any other development, this issue has remarkably different meanings for varied parts of the mental health system. The part discusses how recent mental health reforms echo the ideas of fifty and one hundred years ago. It focuses on a problematic reform issue – that of community control – which was one of the least defined yet most provocative aspects of the program’s social impact. The problems facing general hospitals are further testimony to the difficulties created when mental health services are unplanned, uncoordinated and prone to the vagaries of the marketplace.
