The second edition of Mental Health in Australia: Collaborative Community Practice provides a comprehensive overview of the issues, practice and policy affecting mental health in Australia. New material on non-government organisations, rehabilitation and old age, early psychosis, children and mental health issues, early intervention and emergency psychiatry, ensures the book's currency in a field of changing paradigms.

Divided into two parts, the book first covers the context and history of mental health in Australia, with chapters on community responses, conceptual modes, global perspectives, research, and evaluation of mental health care delivery. Part Two focuses on clinical practice and case management, and includes discussion of possible future directions. Margaret Grigg, a new co-editor, has added a nursing perspective to the book, with new material and case studies showing the importance of collaborative practice in mental health services across nursing, medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy and social work. Twenty-four case studies illustrate the 'lived experience' of mental health, and demonstrate responses from diverse professional services — from diagnosis and referral to treatment and outcomes.

Part 1 – The Context

1. Society, Mental Health, and Illness

2. Mental Illness: Responses from the Community

3. Conceptual Models Used In Mental Health Practice

4. The Global Perspective

5. Mental Health Services in Australia

6. Mental Health Services in the Australian States and Territories

7. Research in Mental Disorders and Mental Health Practice

8. Mental Disorder in Australia

9. The Active Participants in Mental Health Services

10. Teamwork

11. Evaluation and the Concept of Quality in Mental Health Care Delivery

Part 2 – Clinical Practice

2.1 General Principles of Clinical Approach

12. Assessment -Essential Skills

13. Specialised Assessment Skills

14. General Mental Health Care Skills Including Case Management

15. Specific Treatment and Rehabilitation Skills

2.2 Pervasive Issues through the Life Course

16. Personality Disorders

17. Intellectual Disability and Psychiatry

18. Childhood and Adolescence: A Developmental and Family Perspective

19. Adolescence and Early Adulthood - Early Intervention in Principle and Practice

20. Old Age Psychiatry in Australia

2.3 Specific Disorders

21. Substance-Related Disorders

22. Somatisation

23. Anxiety Disorders

24. Affective Disorders

25. Schizophrenia

2.4 Conclusion

26. Integrating Concepts about Understanding Mental Disorders and Mental Health Practice

Edited by Graham Meadows - Professor of Adult Psychiatry, Monash University; Director of the Southern Health Adult Psychiatry Training, Research and Evaluation Centre

Bruce Singh - Cato Professor and Head of Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne; Clinical Director of North Western Mental Health

Margaret Grigg - Senior Nurse Advisor, Mental Health, Department of Human Services, Victoria