International Perspectives on the Use of Community Treatment Orders: Implications for Mental Health Social Workers

Clinical stability in the community associated with long-term approved leave under the Mental Health Act 2001

“…The first country internationally to introduce CTOs as part of psychiatric care was Australia in 1986. Since then, New Zealand, Canada (Cambell et al 2006) and over half of the states in the United States of America have introduced CTOs as a component of psychiatric care (Torrey & Kaplan, 1995).…”

Living in the Shadows: A Canadian Experience of Mental Health Social Work

“…These challenges include issues such as the need to adapt to evolving mental health systems (Aviram, 2002;Bransford & Bakken, 2002;Renouf & Bland, 2005), the need to clearly articulate the social work contribution to the delivery of mental health services (Center for Health Workforce Studies, 2006;Ray, Pugh, Roberts, & Beech, 2008;Renouf & Bland, 2005), and more recently, dissonance between social work values and tasks (Campbell, Brophy, Healy, & O'Brien, 2006;Taylor & Bentley, 2005;Wilson, 2007). Some of these commentaries are supported by recently released national surveys of mental health social workers in the United States (Center for Health Workforce Studies, 2006), Australia (Renouf & Bland, 2005;Ryan, Merighi, Healy, & Renouf, 2004), and the United Kingdom (Ray et al, 2008).…”

“…Current trends across jurisdictions in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, include an emphasis on community-based practice (Aviram, 2002;Center for Health Workforce Studies, 2006;Newhill & Kore, 2004;Ryan et al, 2004;Vourlekis et al, 1998), the need for social workers to be more engaged with clients with serious mental illnesses (Newhill & Kore, 2004;Renouf & Bland, 2005), issues with inter-professional practice (Ray et al, 2008;Renouf & Bland, 2005;Steiner et al, 2008), the identification of approaches that empower clients and their families (Aviram, 2002;Carpenter, 2002;Proctor, 2004;Ray et al, 2008;Renouf & Bland, 2005), and ethical issues associated with increasing trends toward mandated treatment (Campbell et al, 2006;Taylor & Bentley, 2005;Wilson, 2007). Also consistent across jurisdictions is the trend toward implementing more coercive interventions such as mandatory outpatient treatment in the United States and Community Treatment Orders in the United Kingdom, Australia, and parts of Canada (Campbell et al, 2006;Taylor & Bentley, 2005;Wilson, 2007).…”

Editorial introduction: towards a paradigm shift from community care to community development in mental health

“…While the turn to the community was not reversed, there was a distinct shift in focus towards tackling 'dangerousness' through risk management and coercive community treatment through the 2007 Mental Health Act, which was an international trend, particularly in the English-speaking world (Campbell et al, 2006). This undoubtedly involved a policy shift from a 'community care' to a 'community control' discourse, although, as we shall see, this is combined in contradictory ways with other priorities.…”