Policy Analysis: The Prevalence of Leisure-related Concepts Found in Mental Health Legislation

Abstract Background. There appears to be limited investigation on the impact mental health acts have on the implementation of therapeutic modalities such as leisure or recreation in acute settings. This policy analysis explores Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom’s documents as they share similar principles on service delivery for mental health. This paper explores 33 mental health act legislation and supporting documents within Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, in comparison with international (WHO, UN) recommendations, to explore their alignment with the promotion of access to meaningful leisure activities. Methods. A checklist was developed from the literature on ideal criteria that can facilitate leisure engagement and best-practice standards for leisure delivery. Each document was hand-searched and scored. Results. Some documents did not contain any leisure related language and received a score of 1. Leisure-related language was typically associated with the built environment. Australia was the only country to contain high-quality leisure-related language in their policy. New Zealand presented with the lowest scores overall and lacked meaningful use of leisure-related language throughout its reviewed documents. Conclusion. The legislation and supporting documents reviewed do not include sufficient language to support therapeutic engagement in inpatient units.