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Equity in mental health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 May 2011

Roshni Mangalore  and
Martin Knapp
Roshni Mangalore
Affiliation:
Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A, 2AE. (United Kingdom)
Martin Knapp*
Affiliation:
Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A, 2AE. (United Kingdom)
*
Address for correspondence: Professor M. Knapp, Personal Social Services Research Unit, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE (United Kingdom). E-mail: m.knapp@lse.ac.uk
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Summary

Aim – The aim of this paper is to discuss the study of equity in mental health contexts. Methods – We review major principles and theories of distributive justice, covering various disciplines such as ethics, philosophy, economics, medicine and sociology. Recent literature on empirical analysis of inequalities in the mental health field is also reviewed. Results – The review of literature reveals a general lack of debate on equity principles in relation to mental health. Robust empirical evidence on inequalities in the field is also scarce. Conclusions – There is need for better exposition of the relevance of different equity principles for mental health policy and practice. There is also a need for developing standardised methods for the empirical analysis of equity, to examine the distribution of psychiatric morbidity and use of services by income, socioeconomic group, ethnicity, gender and place of residence, and, of course, to examine how equity can be promoted.

Declaration of Interest: This work was funded by the Department of Health programme grant to the PSSRU.

Keywords

mental healthequityequalityincome
Type
Special Articles
Information
Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 260 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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