About the Book

The most authoritative evidence-based approach to mental health policy and design.

Rooted in research findings that support an evidence-based orientation to treatment and recovery, the sixth edition of Mental Health and Social Policy takes a multidisciplinary approach to mental health and social policy. It examines the nature, origins, distribution, and consequences of disorders, while detailing information on the services, programs, and social policies that have been developed to assist people with mental health problems.

Learning Goals

Upon completing this book, readers will be able to:

• Understand the nature, origins, distribution and consequences of mental disorders.
• Examine the services, programs, and social policies developed to assist people with mental health problems.

About the Author: David Mechanic, Ph.D. is the René Dubos University Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers University. He holds faculty appointments in the School of Social Work and in the departments of sociology, psychology and psychiatry. Over the past 50 years he has taught undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students about mental health policy issues and carried out numerous research studies on mental health issues. He also has served on many national and international policy committees on issues covered in this book. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine Mechanic also received many awards including the Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health from the Institute of Medicine, the Benjamin Rush Award from the American Psychiatric Association, the Distinguished Career Award for the Practice of Sociology from the American Sociological Association, and two major mental health awards from the American Public Health Association. Among his many government assignments, he was coordinator of the Panel on Problems, Scope and Boundaries of the President's Commission on Mental Health

Donna D. McAlpine, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Health Services Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota where she is the director of the MPH program in Public Health Administration and Policy. She received her doctorate in sociology from Rutgers University with a focus on medical sociology. She teaches graduate courses in community mental health and medical sociology. Her research focuses on patterns of treatment for persons with mental health and substance use problems, race and ethnic disparities in health, and survey methods. Over the past several years she has also been actively involved in partnering with community agencies in building capacity to do community-based participatory research

David A. Rochefort, Ph.D., is Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Northeastern University where he teaches courses on U.S. Health and Welfare Policy, Public Policy Analysis, Political Language, and Quantitative Techniques. At Northeastern, he has received both the Excellence-in-Teaching Award and the Practice-Oriented Education Award. In addition, he was Beverly Visiting professor, The Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, and Fulbright Scholar at the University of Montreal. In 1986-87, he was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow in the Rutgers-Princeton Program in Mental Health Research. Rochefort's previous publications on mental health include From Poorhouses to Homeless: Policy Analysis and Mental Health Care, 2^nd ed. (1997) and editor of Handbook on Mental Health Policy in the United States (1989). He has served as consultant to the Rhode Island Department of Health, New Jersey Department of Human Services, Human Services Research Institute, Regional Office of Inspector General-U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other groups. He was also the recipient of the President's Outstanding Service Award, Mental Health Association of Rhode Island