Welfare Reform on the Web (September 2004): Mental Health Services - Overseas

MORE RESPONSIBILITY, LESS CONTROL: PSYCHIATRIC SURVIVORS AND WELFARE STATE RESTRUCTURING

R.D. Wilton

Disability and Society, vol.19, 2004, p.371-385

Paper discusses the impact of welfare state reform in Ontario on mental health service users. In the late 1990s the Province's mental health care system moved away from emphases on user empowerment towards a professionally controlled community treatment model. In the same period, a neo-conservative government restructured social assistance programmes so that the value of benefits for disabled people in general declined. Concomitantly, individuals and families were given greater responsibility for meeting at least some of their own needs.