While mental health care has undergone substantial reforms, little attention has been paid to financing issues. This book addresses this shortcoming and brings more transparency into the complex relationship between mental health care reform, service provision and financing. Additionally, it provides rich information about the characteristics of mental health care financing in Western Europe. The author analyses the recent mental health care reform discourse against the backdrop of broader political economic developments and demonstrates the role of financing arrangements herein. The book vividly shows how financing is related to specific effects for service users and their relatives in the process of change. In the final part practitioners, planers and policy makers find useful guidelines for developing alternative financing approaches including support to improve understanding of financing issues amongst those involved in mental health care.

The Author: Ingrid Zechmeister was born in Upper Austria in 1972. After several years of practical experience in the area of ultrasound sonography at the Department of Gynaecology/Vienna General Hospital she moved to research in the field of (mental) health economics and health policy. Since 2000 she has been involved in research projects at the Department of Social Policy/Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration and at the Vienna University Clinic of Psychiatry, and additionally in teaching activities at several Austrian Universities.