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All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1985 Pu blished by Higher and Further Education Division MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data The Politics of mental health.-(Critical texts in social work and the welfare state) 1. Mental illness-Treatment I. Title II. Banton, Ragnhild III. Series 616.89'06 RC349.8

Following the publication by the National Institute for Mental Health in England (NIMHE) of Personality Disorder: No Longer A Diagnosis of Exclusion (National Institute for Mental Health in England, 2003), it is perhaps surprising that so soon after there have been threats to the survival of some of the small number of existing specialist personality disorder services to which it refers. Indeed, one of the few in-patient units specialising in such disorders (Webb House in Crewe) closed in July 2004. Such closures or threats argue for closer collaboration in planning between the relevant secondary and tertiary services and also between the Department of Health, the NIMHE and local National Health Service commissioners. Not safeguarding existing tertiary specialist services, at a time of increasing awareness of the needs of patients with personality disorders, may be short-sighted.