Health policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Health policy - Essay Example Decisions on the clear-cut balance to be employed will rely on an array of issues including the perspective of stakeholders, specifically service users and mental health experts. Community based health care services could be a solution to the dire problems of mental health care in Australia, particularly in New South Wales. Large hospitals located in the urban areas often have the best facilities and equipment for mental treatment whereas clinics in the communities are left behind because of over-emphasis on the needs and demands of the health care sector in the cities. Community based mental health services could lessen the problem of overcrowding in city hospitals which usually causes poor quality mental health care, could improve the medical knowledge and expertise of medical practitioners assigned in the rural areas and most probably it could eliminate the negative attitude of â€Å"blaming the victim†. The Medical Journal of Australia released a report in the mid-1970s which showed the result of the investigation on community psychiatry in the locale. The decision to allow psychiatric hospitals to consign patients in the community had produced confusion on professionals, on whether they were gaining independence or just being coldheartedly disregarded. The New South Wales Mental Health Act in 1958 revised the mental health guidelines. It abolished the 1898 Lunacy Act which prohibited certification and committal on the singular basis of psychiatric infirmity. This move then gave community workers and mental welfare officers an opportunity to visit patients on vacation at home. Community-based services were then further reinforced by the introduction of new psychotropic drugs in the 1950s which were able to lessen acute symptoms of significant conditions and made possible the placing of mental health patients in the community (Lewis 2003, p. 109). Moreover, beginning from the 1960s, mental health professionals were instructed in community principles