The Direction of Change in Western European Mental Health Care

the financially troubled present, the economic crisis of the 1970s, lasting well into the '80s, that has proven to be one of the main deterrents to another major similarity: development of policies emphasizing community-based, nonhospital facilities, largely along the lines of Querido's pioneering groundwork in the '30s in Amsterdam. All Western European nations have taken at least a modest step toward community-based programs; most have also taken direct action accordingly. The aims of all overlap: differentiated services suiting each individual's needs at any particular moment, less stigmatization of the mentally ill, continuity of care, and a decrease in hospital admissions. The contrast between the affluent sixties and the bare-bones seventies has induced government intervention throughout Western Europe to effect cost control. Despite the expressed emphasis on com