Mental Health Legislation: Comparison of South Asian and Western Countries

Abstract

A relationship between psychiatry and law is ever growing and last few decades have seen many important advances in this field around the world. The pace of growth however, remained dissimilar in different countries. Law or legislation is an essential and integral part of the society to regulate everything made to happen around in order. A country's strength of legislation decides its evolution and progress. Almost all countries of the world have legislation for health which decides the national priorities on health, national budget to be spend on health and many other health related issues. In majority of the countries, legislation related to health places emphasis on physical health and mental health is often ignored. Progressively, many countries have formulated or are planning to formulate legislations, policies or programs in order to empower the mental health system. Despite globalization movements, there is disparity from country to country in this aspect. There is a clear division between Western countries which are developed and Eastern Countries which are developing or underdeveloped. Other way, American, European and Australian countries are developed countries, most Asian countries are typically developing and African countries are mostly underdeveloped. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)