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Despite continuing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic gaps in many health care services, the National Healthcare Disparities Report (2004) documents parity in substance abuse treatment provision among individuals of varying socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds. This study investigates that achievement by analyzing the relationship between community socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disadvantage and organizational provision of substance abuse treatment, treatment need and utilization across United States counties, 2000, 2002 and 2003. Results confirm equity in service provision in poorer communities and those with higher concentrations of African Americans. Significant disparities remain, however, in communities with higher concentrations of Hispanics, youth and female-headed households. Limitations and implications for future studies of health care provision are discussed.

The UK Mental Health Act (MHA) Reform (2021) on race and ethnicity promotes new governmental strategies to tackle inequalities faced by ethnically racialised communities detained under the MHA. However, there is a scarcity in personality disorder and ethnicity research. This study aims to investigate what is available in the UK in relation to prevalence, aetiology and treatment provisions of personality disorder for ethnically diverse patients, and to understand their interconnectedness with mental health and criminal justice service provisions. Three key areas of investigations were reviewed, (1) UK prevalence of personality disorder amongst ethnically diverse individuals; (2) aetiology of personality disorder and ethnicity; (3) treatment provisions for ethnically diverse individuals diagnosed with personality disorder.

A scoping study review involved a comprehensive scanning of literature published between 2003 and 2022. Screening and data extraction tools were co-produced by an ethnically diverse research team, including people with lived experience of mental health and occupational expertise. Collaborative work was complete throughout the review, ensuring the research remained valid and reliable.

Ten papers were included. Results demonstrated an evident gap in the literature. Of these, nine papers discussed their prevalence, three papers informed on treatment provisions and only one made reference to aetiology. This review further supports the notion that personality disorder is under-represented within ethnic minority populations, particularly of African, Caribbean and British heritage, however, the reasons for this are multi-facetted and complex, hence, requiring further investigation. The evidence collected relating to treatment provisions of personality disorder was limited and of low quality to reach a clear conclusion on effective treatments for ethnically diverse patients.

The shortage of findings on prevalence, aetiology and treatment provisions, emphasises the need to prioritise further research in this area. Results provide valuable insights into this limited body of knowledge from a UK perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current provision of opioid substitution therapy (OST) during and immediately following release from detention in prisons in England and Wales.

A group of experts was convened to comment on current practices and to make recommendations for improving OST management in prison. Current practices were previously assessed using an online survey and a focus group with experience of OST in prison (Webster, 2017).

Disruption to the management of addiction and reduced treatment choice for OST adversely influences adequate provision of OST in prison. A key concern was the routine diversion of opiate substitutes to other prisoners. The new controlled drug formulations were considered a positive development to ensure streamlined and efficient OST administration. The following patient populations were identified as having concerns beyond their opioid use, and therefore require additional considerations in prison: older people with comorbidities and complex treatment needs; women who have experienced trauma and have childcare issues; and those with existing mental health needs requiring effective understanding and treatment in prison.

Integration of clinical and psychosocial services would enable a joint care plan to be tailored for each individual with opioid dependence and include options for detoxification or maintenance treatment. This would better enable those struggling with opioid use to make informed choices concerning their care during incarceration and for the period immediately following their release. Improvements in coordination of OST would facilitate inclusion of strategies to further streamline this process for the benefit of prisoners and prison staff.

After Ma Yingjeou's re‐election in 2012, Mainland China and Taiwan will continue cooperation in economic fields. The purpose of this paper is to undertake research on a bilateral investment agreement (BIA) between Mainland China and Taiwan.

The paper uses statistics to demonstrate the growing cross‐strait investment and incompetent contemporary investment protection mechanisms in Mainland China and Taiwan. The paper also compares laws in Mainland China and Taiwan and the investment protection agreements concluded by Mainland and Taiwan with other countries, respectively.

Based on the similarities of current laws and the investment protection agreements concluded by Mainland China and Taiwan with other countries, respectively, Mainland China and Taiwan can possibility agree upon major provisions of a BIA. Solutions are provided to both macro and micro challenges against a successful BIA.

It is hard to predict whether the BIA will promote political integration between Mainland China and Taiwan in the near future.

A BIA can boost investors' confidence.

This paper may serve as a humble reference for both the Mainland China and Taiwan government when negotiating the BIA.

Cross‐strait investment is an important and prosperous field in practice, but has not been fully explored in literature thus far. This Article aims to fill this gap.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) was fully implemented in October 2007 within England and Wales as a framework for making decisions about incapacitated persons' care and treatment generally not amounting to a deprivation of their liberty (although such could be authorised under its powers by the new Court of Protection). From a planned date of April 2009, the MCA is to be enlarged by the provisions of the Mental Health Act 2007 (MHA 2007) to encompass deprivation of liberty, with the addition of a new framework of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS). The MHA 2007 also revised significant aspects of the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA), which were implemented in November 2008. The interface between the MCA, as amended to include DOLS, and the revised MHA is complex and potentially ambiguous. This paper describes in detail some issues that may arise at the interface of the two acts, and seeks to inform professionals involved in the use of these legal frameworks of the resulting complexity.

Purpose – This study tracks the legal control of the problem of substance abuse.

Methodology/Approach – The chapter explores the “natural history” of the evolution of the social construction of drug use and our collective response to it. Over the past 100 years, our understanding of drug use/abuse and the system for handling drug problems have gone through a series of changes. In the past 20 years or so, provision of treatment for drug offenders within the criminal justice system has rapidly expanded. California's recently enacted Proposition 36 (Prop 36) initiates for the first time on a mass basis the court-supervised drug treatment that began a decade earlier on a much smaller scale with the original drug courts. This chapter compares the Prop 36 program for diverting nonviolent drug offenders into court-supervised treatment with the original drug courts.

Findings – The research shows how court-supervised drug treatment has evolved from a personalized care program in the original drug courts to a mass processing operation under Prop 36. The research finds that the social problem solution of offering treatment to more drug defendants created its own unanticipated consequences and problems, including significant standardization in the operations of the court and a dilution of many useful features that defined the early drug courts.

Practical implications – “Farming out” drug defendants to probation and treatment makes case-processing and treatment potentially less effective therapeutically. The chapter raises questions about how social control can extend its domain without “breaking the bank” and what the consequences are for how social problems are handled.

Although preferential treatment has been considered a positive relationship marketing tactic, this research aims to examine how perceived harm to others as a result of preferential treatment invokes consumers’ negative moral emotions and negative attitudes towards the service provider.

Four studies are presented in this research. A pilot study first provides empirical evidence that customers who receive preferential treatment are aware of potential harm caused to other customers. Three experimental studies then test the hypothesis that shame and embarrassment mediate the effect of perceived harm to others on consumers’ responses to earned and unearned preferential treatment, respectively.

The present studies demonstrate that consumers naturally scan the environment and seek out information about others when judging their own experience; consequently, when preferential treatment is perceived to cause harm to others, it can trigger negative moral emotions. In particular, the authors show that shame mediates the effect of perceived harm to others when preferential treatment is earned, whereas embarrassment mediates this effect when preferential treatment is unearned.

The results of this research contribute to the literature on earned and unearned preferential treatment and negative moral emotions. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research to show that negative moral emotions may arise because of perceptions of harm to other customers, particularly in the context of earned preferential treatment. The authors demonstrate that ordinary shopping contexts have the potential to elicit these negative emotions, raising concerns about ethical and moral practices in service environments.

When designing relationship marketing programs incorporating preferential treatment, firms need to consider both the ethics of justice and the ethics of care. Guidelines considering ethics of care should be developed for employees to ensure appropriate training to deliver preferential treatment effectively and avoiding situations causing potential harm to others. Strategies could include encouraging employees to better scan the servicescape to identify if other customers’ needs should be attended first, and providing clearer justifications when administering preferential treatment. The provision of choices such as delayed redemption and passing on benefits to others can help minimise harm and potentially enhance customer service experience.

The studies presented here are the first to examine the role of perceived harm to others as an antecedent of consumers’ negative responses to preferential treatment. In particular, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to show that negative moral emotions may arise in the context of earned preferential treatment, calling into question some basic principles of relationship marketing.

This paper aims to describe: the need for substance misuse treatment with high risk, personality disordered prisoners, and the implementation of two evidence-based psychological interventions aimed at addressing substance misuse within a high secure, personality disorder treatment unit and potential future evaluation options.

In addition to the literature base evidencing the need for substance misuse treatment with this population, the Iceberg and ‘InsideOut’ interventions are presented. These interventions adopt a risk reduction and health intervention approach respectively. This includes explanations of how they came to be implemented within a prison based personality disorder treatment service and potential ways to evaluate these services.

Evidence-based psychological interventions can be implemented for this population whilst being responsive to changing government priorities for substance misuse treatment. The organisation’s research strategy includes an intention to evaluate these interventions in order to inform future delivery.

The high levels of co-morbidity between personality disorder and substance misuse disorders in the high security prison estate highlights the need for substance related treatment for this population. Given the responsivity issues relevant to personality disordered offenders, the format of delivery of evidence-based psychological interventions has to be considered.

This paper discusses the application of evidence-based psychological interventions for substance use within a high secure, personality disordered population which has developed as a result of ministerial changes within the treatment of both substance misuse and personality disorder.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the history of relevant legislation before and after the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act (MDA).

A chronological narrative of laws and reports with concluding discussion.

That UK legislators have not made use of the evidence base available to them and have favoured enforcement rather than treatment approaches. That current UK practice has exacerbated not contain the use of and harms caused by illegal drugs.

The paper does not cover all relevant documents, especially those from non-governmental sources.

The practical implications centre on the failure of consecutive governments to reflect on and review the impact of current legislation, especially on people who use drugs.

That the situations of people who use drugs are currently ignored by the government and those proven responses which save lives and reduce harm are rejected.

The paper attempts to show the historical contexts of control and dangerousness of which the MDA is one instrument.

National guidelines in the UK for emotionally unstable personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder (PD) do not recommend treatment with medication, suggesting instead psychotherapy. There is little evidence that medication has benefit from the literature. Despite this, many patients with PDs are prescribed medications. This study aims to quantify medication prescriptions within the therapeutic community for those with PD and assess if treatment led to changes in prescription.

An audit tool was designed in Microsoft Excel; 30 most recent patients discharged from the authors’ service since November 2018 were identified. Their discharge summaries were scrutinised for changes in medication comparing the beginning of treatment to the end. These were then analysed in terms of changes in class of medication and dose as well as total number of medications prescribed.

In total, 31 patients’ notes were scrutinised. Then, 25 patients were prescribed psychiatric medication at the start of their treatment, 24 had medications changed falling to 17 at the end of treatment. Antidepressants were the most commonly prescribed medications. By class, antidepressant prescriptions fell by 35 per cent, antipsychotics by 43 per cent, anxiolytics by 40 per cent. The prescription of mood stabilisers and Z drugs remained the same.

The assessment of medication changes during psychotherapeutic treatment within a therapeutic community is unique in the literature. Understanding and hypothesising the dynamics involved within this process has also received little attention in research. This study highlights the potential from which further research into this neglected but pertinent area could be conducted.