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At the crossroads of health policy, health economics and family policy: whose interest to provide a family-orientated service?

Kavanagh, Shane M. and Knapp, Martin R J. (1996) At the crossroads of health policy, health economics and family policy: whose interest to provide a family-orientated service? In: Göpfert, Michael and Webster, Jeni and Seeman, Mary, eds. Parental Psychiatric Disorder: Distressed Parents and their Children. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 335-347. ISBN hbk: 0521452597 / pbk: 0521458927. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:26541)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.

Abstract

<p>Policy on the family is enjoying a revival due to its place at the centre of the ‘communitarian’ agenda that is influencing policy discussions in the US and Britain (Etzioni, 1993). However, although politicians from all parties in Britain trumpet the importance of the family, most government effort appears to have been concentrated on reducing the costs of welfare payments to single mothers.

<p><p><p>Mental illness has long been a neglected area of health policy, and recent publicity has centred on a few public incidents<p><p>where someone with mental illness has caused direct harm to themselves of others. Much less attention has been given to<p><p>successful treatment of the majority of mentally ill people. It is no surprise that comparatively little consideration has been given to policies for caring for <b>families</b> with a mentally ill member.

<p><p><p>This chapter borrows arguments from health economics to examine issues confronting health policy as it relates to mental<p><p>health problems in families. We start with a summary of the scale of the problem and the family effects of mental illness. From three perspectives - markets, publicly-administered systems and professional relationships - we then highlight difficulties facing family policy, and suggest how the resource environment should be shaped to better meet society’s and individual’s needs.

Item Type: Book section
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research > Personal Social Services Research Unit
Depositing User: R. Bass
Date Deposited: 20 May 2011 14:24 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:04 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/26541 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Kavanagh, Shane M..

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