Comparing mental health and mental capacity law data across borders: Challenges and opportunities

The island of Ireland is partitioned into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In both jurisdictions, there have been important developments in mental health and mental capacity law, and associated policies and services. This includes an emphasis on developing more comprehensive approaches to collecting data on outcomes and so there is an opportunity to align these processes to enable comparison and shared learning across the border. This article explores: legal and policy developments; international approaches to mental health outcomes; and the type of data that would be helpful to collect to better understand the use of mental health and mental capacity laws. It is argued that an inclusive strategy to developing a comprehensive, integrated and aligned approach to collecting and analysing data would benefit citizens, policy makers and professionals.