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

Abstract

We are pleased to introduce the first ever Special Issue of the Community Development Journal (CDJ) dedicated to mental health. In fact, while there have been many articles focusing on health and community development (CD) over the years, including the 1983 CDJ's second Special Issue, which was dedicated to primary health care, these have largely ignored mental health issues. There have been very few articles focusing directly on mental health during the nearly 46 years of the journal's history since 1966, although some have considered it in passing. So few in fact that we will be able to highlight some of the most significant ones a bit later. So why has CD largely ignored mental health until recently, and similarly why is it that mainstream mental health theory, policy and practice have overlooked CD? Even more important perhaps, why is this is now changing, and will it hopefully, perhaps even as a result of this Special Issue, change further? While some of the articles in this collection do, to greater and lesser degrees, address such questions, most rightly focus centrally on building a case for the contemporary and future relevance of CD to mental health and vice versa. In this introduction, we therefore seek to explain such reticence, as silences are as interesting and significant in their way as noise. © Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal. 2012 All rights reserved.