another shooting
Out of context: Reply #402
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- johndiggity0
here's some history:
The federal government's intent to decrease funding for mental health care first became evident during the administration of Jimmy Carter. State policymakers, mental health professionals, and advocacy groups had hoped that the Carter administration would produce significant advances in federal support for mental health: First Lady Rosalyn Carter was a prominent advocate of better care for the mentally ill, and the creation in 1977 of the highly publicized President's Commission on Mental Health seemed to portend an expansion of federal support for mental health initiatives. However, the federal government's ability to do so was limited by spiraling inflation, the escalating cost of Medicare, Medicaid and other federal entitlement programs, the absence of vocal champions at the NIMH and other government agencies, and the lack of consensus about priorities; the community mental health centers' many responsibilities and the increasing prominence of psychologists and social workers in the mental health field virtually guaranteed that there would be no agreement as to which forms of mental illness or treatment were to be emphasized. These contradictions were reflected in the 1980 National Mental Health Systems Act, which stressed the need for improving linkages between mental health and other forms of health care, increasing provider accountability, improving care for the acutely ill, and safeguarding patients' civil rights but did not detail how these aims were to be accomplished. In addition, the act stressed that the federal government would continue to help shape mental health policy even as federal funding for community mental health centers would eventually cease.[171]
From 1981 onward, the federal government's reluctant disengagement from mental health policy quickly gave way to a determined retreat. Seeking to cut federal taxes and expenditures, President Ronald Reagan sought to dismantle or shrink many social welfare programs. One of the aims of aims of his first administration was to take apart federal mental health and substance abuse programs, cut federal support for them by twenty-five percent, and forward federal monies to the states in the form of block grants that would allow each state to devise its own mental health and substance abuse treatment policies policies. With the passage of the 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, which revoked the Mental Health Systems Act, this goal was made into policy.
the rest can be read here: http://www.archives.nysed.gov/a/…
fascinating read.