In the United Kingdom and United States, an aim of the mental health care system is to learn lessons from adverse events. This improves both safety and patient care. There is however tension between learning lessons from such events and understanding the vast complexity of mental health care underpinning those events.
The purpose of this book is to explore this tension, which is particularly salient given the alarming rate at which mental health care continues to evolve. This tension is most acutely encapsulated in cases of homicides committed by persons in receipt of mental health services. Searching questions are often asked in the aftermath of these dreadful events. Why did the event happen? What could have been done to prevent it?
The book calls for a reappraisal of accountability in modern health care in the context of adverse events. In doing so, it draws on, and directly appeals to, scholars and students in the areas of law, legal theory, health politics, sociology, regulatory studies and public administration.
