ABSTRACT
A search for comparable federal health care legislation, with similar potential to transform the American mental health landscape, harkens back to 1945 and the ending of World War II (1939-1945). As post-World War II American society struggled with the fallout from its own wartime behavioral health crisis resulting from a reported 1.3millionmilitary neuropsychiatric admissions, with more than 600,000 psychiatrically discharged veterans rapidly overwhelming a completely inept VA system (Baker & Pickren, 2007), legends of enlightened former military leaders became disillusioned with the fragmented, antiquated, dualistic mental health care policies in the private sector that emphasized social isolation, stigma, and institutionalization (Menninger, 1948). Specifically, crucial paradigmatic changes gleaned from hard-won psychiatric lessons of World War II were tragically being ignored in the public sector. This new military paradigm centered on the treatability of traumatic stress injuries and the need for a coordinated continuum of holistic care focusing on prevention, early identification, and intervention, as well as critical social reintegration services with clear expectations of recovery, along well-defined, integrated echelons of community-based treatment aimed to support families and restore the individual to a maximal level of functioning and productivity (Glass & Bernucci, 1966). These seasoned clinicians also knew that changing hearts and minds would require a concerted effort and resources to generate the necessary public awareness, destigmatization, and social reintegration implemented by well-trained, knowledgeable practitioners-informed by scientific investigation and innovation (Menninger, 1948). A large cadre of such leaders was all too familiar with the perilous consequences of neglecting so-called psychiatric lessons of war (Jones, 1995), resulting in many becoming staunch reform advocates (e.g., Glass, 1966; Menninger, 1948).
