Stakeholders as partners: The challenges of partnership in Quebec mental health policy

Abstract

The notion of partnership has swept our society's image makers' imagination and invaded our policy designers' conception of the desirable, the rational, and the marketable. This is particularly true in the field of mental health which is now earnestly investing in its operationalization. This paper presents the case of Quebec, a province which has legislated partnership within its recent mental health policy. The author examines the many responses this concept has provoked among the key stakeholders involved. Such an analysis provides us with a unique and direct insight into the many challenges government-legislated partnership is to meet in the human services, if it is ever to be viable.