Out of the hospital, onto the streets: the overselling of benevolence

Hastings Cent Rep. 1983 Jun;13(3):5-7.

Abstract

KIE: Mental health administrators and policy makers are accused of "oversell and overkill" in lobbying during the early 1960s to get patients out of mental hospitals and to establish Community Mental Health Centers. It is suggested that self interest was a motivating factor in the deinstitutionalization movement, as well as in the push to use indigenous nonprofessionals for working with mentally ill members of minority groups.

MeSH terms

  • Community Mental Health Services
  • Deinstitutionalization*
  • Humans
  • Mental Disorders / therapy*
  • Mentally Ill Persons*
  • Public Opinion
  • Public Policy
  • Quality of Health Care
  • United States