Amazon.com description: Product Description: Discussions of managed care are dominated by emotion and rhetoric and failure to differentiate among the varying structures, approaches, and strategies that are called managed care. These discussions rarely take account of the complexity of the arena or the failures of mental health systems prior to the introduction of managed care. If we are to shape managed care constructively, we first need clear understanding of how it is structured, how it functions, and when it performs well and poorly. This should help identify how practices can best be monitored, evaluated, and, if necessary, regulated. This book will help readers along this path. This is the 78th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Mental Health Services. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals section.