Psychiatric Hospital Closure

The restricting of mental health systems affects many people. This text focuses on the service users, workers and planners, covering both the experience of planning and the perspective of being at the receiving end of closure. Case studies of specific closures are also included.

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This study demonstrates the crucial process of hospital closure, both in terms of the outcome of such a closure and the provision for future services in the community. Throughout the text future services are defined and planned as part of the resettlement component. Restructuring our mental health systems affects all of us and this book focuses on service users, workers and planners. The authors are of diverse backgrounds in anthropology, psychology, sociology and social work, reflecting the important differences in the knowledge required for a better understanding of hospital closure. A number of specific instances of hospital closure are described as case studies indicating the implications for those participants involved in it. The conflicts which arise through closure have been highlighted together with the ways and means by which they have been handled and resolved. The aim is to explore myths and realities from the different perspectives of those affected.