This book examines mental health policy reform across three parliamentary democracies, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with particular focus on the subnational regions of Ontario, England, and Victoria. Sitting at the nexus of health policy and political science, it assesses why jurisdictions with similar governance structures have pursued different reform paths. Drawing on comparative historical institutionalism, postpsychiatry, and Mad Studies, it examines the policy frameworks shaping mental health service delivery, the financing and design of service systems, and the professional regulation and payment mechanisms affecting access to mental health care. By comparing the scale and pace of policy change across three different states, it throws important light on the ways in which political structures and institutional mechanisms influence mental health policy.

Kaitlin Di Pierdomenico is a Postdoctoral Fellow at York University, Canada. Her research critically examines the gap between policy and practice in mental health reform.