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Growth in Institutions
By 1880 there were 75 public psychiatric hospitals in the United States. These hospitals were made to be peaceful locations in which people could hopefully recover. -
New Drugs
In 1954 Thorazine was introduced as a way to calm down patients with disorders. The disorders that it helped with are schizophrenia and manic-depression, two big disorders at this time. Many people were given this drug. -
Half a Million
Deinstitutionalization began in 1955 after the spread of chlorpromazine (Thorazine). There were around 558,239 mentally ill patients in state mental institutions. This was more than in 1954, where there were only 486,620 patients. -
John F. Kennedy
President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Centers Act (CMHCA) in 1963 before he died. Due to him signing this act, he was able to provide $150 million, which went to new mental health center programs. The reason on why he did this is because his goal was to reduce the number of patients in mental hospitals by 50%, in 10-20 years. -
Mental Institution Drops
U.S. mental institutions reduced the amount of patients to about 160,000. -
Budget Cuts
This was when sweeping budget cuts led to a decline for services to the mentally ill. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter, helped to establish the Mental Health Systems Act. With this act, it helped restructure federal community health center programs by strengthening links between local and states. -
Ronald Reagan
The act was however repealed once President Ronald Reagan took office in 1981. The reason for this was because the federal support of CMHC ran counter to his goals. His goals were to reduce the spending and social programs. -
Drug Abuse and Mental Health Block Grant
Ronald Reagan enacted this block grant that decreased the funding system by 30% in 1982. With this happening, major service reductions started to occur. With this system happening, the federal government simply just redistributed money, which increased the burden. -
Edwin Valdiserri
A study done by Edwin Valdiserri and more of his associates reported that mentally ill jail inmates were four times more likely to have been incarcerated for less serious charges, things like disorderly conduct and threats. A more recent stud found out that 60% of the inmates had been jailed for misdemeanors and had been arrested on average of six times.
