ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews mental health policies, programs, and initiatives beginning in the 1800s with the mental hygiene movement. It discusses the treatments that evolved in the 1940s and 1950s through the National Mental Health Act of 1946, and covers systemic changes that were the result of the Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Center Construction Act of 1963. The chapter examines the role of Medicaid, Medicare, and other government benefits in the deinstitutionalization movement. Historically, the federal government was not interested in participating in social services or mental health care. Interest in legislation for mental health remained insignificant until the nation began to face issues with "shell shock" following World War II. In October 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Maternal and Child Health and Mental Retardation Planning Amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935 in an effort to fund programs for those with mental retardation and mental illness.
