Deinstitutionalization

This paper treats the issue of the treatment of the chronically mentally disabled. The author challenges the feasibility of plans for the treatment of the chronically disabled outside of mental institutions and questions whether in actuality there has been a sufficient commitment (moral, professional, and financial) to the local noninstitutional care of this population. The history of treatment of the mentally disabled over the past three centuries is reviewed. The failure of the community mental health center movement during the 1960s is described, and the reasons for that failure are presented. A note of extreme caution is sounded as behavioral scientists and mental health planners devise methods of caring for the chronic population, lest courses be embarked upon that have been given inadequate consideration and planning.