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Deinstitutionalization And Its Discontents: American Mental Health Policy Reform, Olga Loraine Kofman
Deinstitutionalization And Its Discontents: American Mental Health Policy Reform, Olga Loraine Kofman
CMC Senior Theses
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act, establishing the beginnings of deinstitutionalization in the United States. By some counts, this Act was a stupendous policy success—by others, a dismal failure. 50 years later, no cohesive national mental health care policy has emerged to deal with increased rates of mental illness among the homeless and the incarcerated. However, California has made enormous strides to create a state policy which provides adequate services to the mildly, moderately, and severely mentally ill as well as adequate funding for those services through Proposition 63, …