Mental health in our future cities

Across the world cities are becoming larger as populations drift from the country into urban areas. At the same time the mentally ill are leaving the mental hospital and new forms of care are being found in the community. The best ways in which service for the mentally ill can be organised in the community are still a matter for debate, and as cities become larger problems may become greater. In this book, services in London are compared with those in 10 other cities around the world. The reader can find examples of some of the best ideas and practices in modern mental health services. The conference at which these findings were presented included users of the services. The chapters describing the services in each city consist of the background briefing papers prepared by each city, updated by each set of authors in the light of what they saw and heard at the conference. In particular they have included sections on how they seem probable future developments in their cities.