Mobilizing Community Support for Community Mental Health.pptVIP

Mobilizing Community Support for Community Mental Health María Félix-Ortiz, PhD San Antonio Express-News Columnist In this presentation… What’s “community mental health?” What are the resources in San Antonio and Texas? What are the gaps What’s being done to address community needs? What can we do? What is community mental health? A brief history (so we don’t make the same mistakes over and over again…too late!) Ancient societies: the ill as seers, as opportunities for charity to obtain divine indulgences. 1500s: In English society, those in need had a right to aid, and the nobleman had a duty to provide it as a matter of social justice. 1600-1800: Poorhouses and prisons for the poor, mad, and bad supported financially by taxes from the community so treatment became harsher. 1800s: Tuke, a Quaker, and Pinel, a French physician, advocate for humane treatment of the mentally ill who were, in France, literally chained to the walls. In 1830, Massachusetts opens the first state hospital to cure and rehabilitate, but so many early failures damaged the reputation of early state hospitals and led to the creation of privates. What is community mental health? A brief history (so we don’t make the same mistakes over and over again…too late!) Early 1900s: military psychiatry develops early intervention and has many successes in treatment. The psychophysiology of stress is detailed by Selye. 1940-50s: exposes of exceedingly poor state hospital conditions and local government corruption in managing them; the first psychotropic medications are introduced (thorazine). In 1946, the NIMH is signed into law by President Truman. In 1955, Congress created the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health to develop a comprehensive mental health plan. They report to the new president, Kennedy, that the current system could provide only a tiny fraction of the care needed…There was no aftercare for those released from state hospitals. What is community mental health? A brief h