Human rights and responsibilities are perhaps at the very core of ethical issues in the mental health field. Across the globe there are examples of suffering whether as a result of natural disasters or human conflict. Issues of high youth unemployment are beginning to take their toll across Europe. In the UK the economic downturn is pushing many more families into poverty.
It is perhaps worth reminding ourselves, from time to time, of these broader social and economic forces which can shape our understanding of mental health in modern societies. We know that there is an understanding of ‘mental health’ that, at one level, is trans-scientific and largely a cultural product of a particular time and place. It is arguably in these uncertain times when political expediency may be privileged over evidence that we need to assert and promote the significant contribution that an evidence-based approach to mental health…