This paper consists of a review of economic evaluations of mental health care. The conclusion which emerges from this review is that the existing literature is lacking in both quantity and quality. Only seven evaluations of both the costs and effects of alternative forms of mental health care...

The main purpose of this paper is to measure the costs of small (i.e. less than 50 beds) NHS units for the care of mentally handicapped persons in the community and to compare these costs with those of hospital care standardising wherever possible for resident characteristics such as age and...

For thirty years it has been government policy to shift the balance of mental health care from institutional to community care. But progress towards the objectives of ‘normalisation’ and integration of individuals with a mental health problem in the wider community has been slow. The...

This paper consists of the report of an option appraisal. It is exactly in the form in which it was presented to the Management Team and the Authority in the DIstrict to which it relates. The only changes are that ficticious names have been substituted for the originals to maintain anonymity....

This paper first reviews the range of health problems faced by different groups of the ‘homeless’, and second, the use of health services by the homeless and, in particular, their first contact with the service. The current patterns of provision have been widely criticised and the various...

In this paper there is an attempt to demonstrate the relevance of economics to the provision of mental health care and to describe how one technique in the economist’s toolkit should be applied in this field if the objective of policy is to use society’s scarce resources efficiently. The...