by The Open University
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In this extract you consider mental health as a business. This is not the way mental health services are usually regarded, as it is more common, at least in the UK, to regard them as public services. However, ideas about being more businesslike in health and social care have gained prominence in recent years. What does being a business, or more businesslike, mean? For one thing, it implies a profit motive: goods or services delivered to make money for private companies and their shareholders. This is quite controversial when applied to mental health services. There is a tension between mental health services as a business ? a growth industry ? and as a regulated public service. Caught between the two are the service users/survivors and their families. How are their needs met by the competing forces in the mental health marketplace?
Being a business, or businesslike, also suggests the importance of delivering what customers want so that the provider stays in business and flourishes. Further, it means being efficient, systematic and practical. That, at least on the face of it, looks like a very positive attribute for mental health services.
This extract takes these three issues ? the profit motive, delivering what the customer wants, and efficient, systematic and practical services ? as its organising framework. In Section 3.2 you begin to consider the concept of mental health as a business, and in Section 3.3 you focus on the profit motive and the controversial role of pharmaceutical companies. Section 3.4 considers ‘what the customer wants?, and Section 3.5 tackles the question of efficient, systematic and practical services through an examination of two mechanisms set in place to promote them ? the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines and the National Service Framework for Mental Health.
Original Copyright © 2004 The Open University. Now made available within the Creative Commons framework under the CC Attribution – Non-commercial licence (see http://creativecommons.org/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/).
