The purpose with this essay is to examine if the Swedish government’s intentions regarding to the mental health care reform, have been fulfilled. We have classified the intentions into three categories, regulation, financing and responsibility for organizing the policy. The intentions have then been compared with the results of the reform.

Our theoretical framework starts with a model, developed by Evert Vedung (1998). We use this model as a tool to examine the fulfillment of the mental health care reform. A very important part in the Swedish mental health care reform, are the skeleton laws. The study therefore also gives a presentation of advantages and disadvantages with skeleton laws.

The result of the study shows that the intentions of the Swedish government have not been fulfilled in the process of implementation. Partly it is because the skeleton laws are vaguely formulated. This can be one explanation for failure. The conclusion of this essay stipulates that the regulation and the responsibility for organizing the policy need to be further specified and explained. Nevertheless the Swedish government’s intention of financing has been succeeded.

Keywords: LSS, skeleton laws, mental health care reform, responsibility for organizing the policy