A consuming tension in mental health leadership Available to Purchase

The emerging role of the consumer movement in shaping the reform of mental health services in New Zealand since the mid‐1980s, and in particular in the last five to 10 years, has been considerable. This article suggests that challenges now face a consumer movement born out of institutional oppression, as the successful evolution of community‐based service delivery increasingly becomes a reality ‐ changing not just the location, but also the culture, understandings, expectations and exclusivity of mental health services. The experience of being a ‘consumer’ of mental health services now takes place not so much at the extremities of social life following acute rejection, but within communities that are increasingly diverse, complex, reflective ‐ and often unsure and contradictory. A challenge, then, is for a consumer leadership to remain inclusive of diversity and dynamism of community life.