California: Sacramento County's experience with community care

Since 1969 treatment of the mentally ill in California has shifted from the use of large state institutions to reliance on community-based programs. The author describes the shift, the legislation precipitating it, and the public controversy surrounding the closing of state mental hospitals. The Sacramento County Mental Health Services handled the change to community care by contracting with the School of Medicine of the University of California at Davis to provide the necessary leadership and service programs; a crisis intervention approach was used.