The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA) (also known as the Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, Mental Retardation Facilities and Construction Act, Public Law 88-164, or the Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963) was an act to provide federal funding for community mental health centers and research facilities in the United States. This legislation was passed as part of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. It led to considerable deinstitutionalization.
In 1955, Congress passed the Mental Health Study Act, leading to the establishment of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Mental Health. That Commission issued a report in 1961, which would become the basis of the 1963 Act.
The CMHA provided grants to states for the establishment of local mental health centers, under the overview of the National Institute of Mental Health. The NIH also conducted a study involving adequacy in mental health issues. The purpose of the CMHA was to build mental health centers to provide for community-based care, as an alternative to institutionalization. At the centers, patients could be treated while working and living at home.
Only half of the proposed centers were ever built; none were fully funded, and the act didn't provide money to operate them long-term. Some states saw an opportunity to close expensive state hospitals without spending some of the money on community-based care. Deinstitutionalization accelerated after the adoption of Medicaid in 1965. During the Reagan administration, the remaining funding for the act was converted into a mental-health block grant for states. Since the CMHA was enacted, 90 percent of beds have been cut at state hospitals.
The CMHA proved to be a mixed success. Many patients, formerly warehoused in institutions, were released into the community. However, not all communities had the facilities or expertise to deal with them. In many cases, patients wound up in adult homes or with their families, or homeless in large cities, but without the mental health care they needed.
Video Community Mental Health Act
See also
- Community mental health service
- Psychiatric hospital
- Involuntary commitment
- Outpatient commitment
- Treatment Advocacy Center
- Political abuse of psychiatry
- Global Mental Health
Maps Community Mental Health Act
Notes
Further reading
- Arce, A. Anthony; Vergare, Michael J. (December 1987). "Homelessness, the chronic mentally ill and community mental health centers". Community Mental Health Journal. Netherlands: Springer. 23 (4): 242-249. PMID 3440376.
- Institute of Medicine; Committee on Health Care for Homeless People (1988). Homelessness, Health, and Human Needs: Health Care and Human Needs. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. p. 97. doi:10.17226/1092 . ISBN 978-0-309-03832-4.
- Kramer, Morton (1969). "Statistics of Mental Disorders in the United States: Current Status, Some Urgent Needs and Suggested Solutions". Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (General). Blackwell Publishing for the Royal Statistical Society. 132 (3): 353-407. doi:10.2307/2344118. JSTOR 2344118. (Registration required (help)).
- Rochefort, David A. (1993). From Poorhouses to Homelessness: Policy Analysis and Mental Health Care. Westport, CT: Auburn House. OCLC 27768141.
- Rudin, Edward; McInnes, Robert S. (July 1963). "Community Mental Health Services Act: Five Years of Operation Under the California Law". California Medicine. 99 (1): 9-11. PMC 1515154 . PMID 13982995.
- Sharfstein, Steven S. (May 2000). "Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health?". Psychiatric Services. American Psychiatric Association. 51 (5): 616-620. doi:10.1176/appi.ps.51.5.616 . PMID 10783179.
- Stavis, Paul F. (April 1991). "Homeward Bound: The Developing Legal Right to a Home in the Community". Quality of Care Newsletter. New York State Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities (48). Archived from the original on 2009-01-11.
External links
- "S. 1576 (88th): An Act to provide assistance in combating mental retardation through grants for construction of research centers and grants for facilities for the mentally retarded and assistance in improving mental health through grants for construction and initial staffing". GovTrack. Civic Impulse, LLC.
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