ABSTRACT
This chapter explores ‘Global Injustice in Mental Health Care’. The chapter starts with an anonymised clinical case history demonstrating lack of care for complex social exclusion, substance misuse, and mental illness. The chapter uses evidence from the World Health Organization and other sources to demonstrate and describe global inequity in mental health care. Particular attention is given to the relationships between mental illness and poverty, unemployment, homelessness, imprisonment, reduced rates of marriage, and issues relating to migration. The concept of ‘structural violence’ is used to explore the political, economic, and social circumstances that shape the landscape of risk for mental illness, the likelihood of receiving care, and contrasting outcomes for people with mental illness around the world. The chapter starts with evidence on this topic, summarises responses at international level, emphasises the centrality of dignity, and concludes with an outspoken manifesto for culturally informed change.
