Milford chronicle., 1963-05-17
The Changing
Concepts OF Mental
Health Cure

Last year Americans, through
local, state and federal govern
ments, spent two and a half bill
lion dollars on mental health.
Most of this money was used
to maintain a population nearly
the size of Detroit's In mental
hospitals. Yet most mental pa
tients don't belong in such in
stitutions.
According to modern psychia-
trio thought, they belong in their
own community at home not
miles away.
Constitutional care may have
seemed the only solution at one
time, but we know now that 1t
can be more, of a detriment than
a help, explains DR.. Hamilton
C. Ford, chairman of the Ameri-
can Medical Associations Com
can Medical Associations Coun-
Gil on Mental Health.
"There has been a revolution
in the treatment of the mentally
i'll In the past decade and this
In turn has revolutionized our
way of looking at mental illness. "
s'm the language OF this mis-
sile age, It's time to start phas-
ing out many of our centralized
mental hospitals, just as these
hospitals phased out the ancient
concept of insane asylums not
so many years ago."
Just as emphatic Is another
member of the council, DR.. Rob-
ert H. Felix, director of ths
National Institute Of Mental
Health at Bethesda, Md.
fBased on what we have learn
ed" he declared, ''the concept
of a large mental hospital as the
most desirable place for a sicl
mind seems rather ridiculous.
"There Is no valid reason
why mental illness cannot be
treated like any other illness :
in a Doctors office or a loca.
hospital If necessary"
| There are years of preceden
against such a stand, but ap-
Iparently precedent is going t.
have to stand aside If we're t.
make inroads against the grow
ing problem of mental Illness
The first true mental hos
pita1 In this country was bull
before the Revolution at vii.
ltamsburg, Va. It wasn't for an
other hundred years, however
that states took over full re-
sponsibility for mental Hines.
and centralized hospitals cam,
into being.
Sheer size ultimately proves
to be no answer, and In recen
years the trend has been towarC
smaller, although still some
what centralized, state hospitals
The new accentuation goes still
further, and aims at decentrali'
zation on a grand scale. The tde;
is to put mental health SQUARED,
UP to the Individual communitie
under high quality state stand
ards.
Only In this way, mental healt
planners feel can truly effectiv
programs be worked out and tn
whole spectrum Of problems
ranging from those Of the anxiety
wrought housewife to those ofth
crimtnally insane, be fully met
Several states have alread
passed legislation permitting, bu
not obliging, communities to wor
out such programs. In thos
places where 1t has been tired
results are extremely gratifying
In fact, after five-year stud
of the results, the Council o
Mental Health last year urge
nationwide application of the con
cept. Details of what would b
necessary were further spelle
out by delegates to the Firs
National Congress on Menta
Health, held last October 1
Chicago by the ANA.
Meanwhile In Washington, tn
governments role In such apro
gram was being pursued by Dr
Felix and other officials Of tn
National Institute Of Menta
Health. Their recommendation
helped shape the basis Of Presi
dent Kennedy's proposals to Con
gress earlier this month for fed
l eral matching grants for com
munity mental health centers
A start toward working OIL
the intricacies of such a vas
undertaking will be made ne1
Friday when officials Of stat
medical societies and ments
health agencies meet with tn
I, ANA council In Chicago.
: The crux of the problem !
, how to get medical care for men
n tai illness essentially on th
same footing as traditional med
ica1 care. This may sound simpl
j and uninvolved, but is not, for
! represents a radical departur
from the past.
"Since medieval times the ide
S has been to segregate the men
!, tally ILL.," explained DR.. Forc
"Perhaps this was often all ths
was possible when the averag
, stay In an institution was 8
: years. It is not true today whe
a period of weeks Is often tn
rule.
0 ''You can't look at psychiatr
I as a plug along affair anymore