1900’s
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- 1900’s Psychiatric hospitals began to overflow with patients being treated inhumanely. Founder of National Mental Health Association, Clifford Beers writes “A Mind That Found Itself”. Experiments were conducted on people with mental health concerns such as:
- Insulin induced comas
- Convulsions due to camphor injections
- Intentional infection of Malaria
- Frontal lobotomies
- Electroshock therapy
- The New Deal opened doors for more access to care and services.
- Peer Support group Fountain House was created in the 1940’s and still exists today.
- Antipsychotic drugs were introduced. Many had terrible side effects, which weren’t addressed until much later.
- The Deinstitutionalization movement begin giving way to Mental Health Community Construction Act, Community Support Programs, and activists began demonstrating for the rights of behavioral health consumers.
- California created the first ever statewide consumer network.
- The first Alternatives Conference convened for peers by peers.
- SAMHSA was created in 1992 and a Federal Consumer Affairs Specialist was hired.
- A large majority of psychiatric hospital beds were eliminated, and community-based treatment was encouraged. This was protested as many consumers required welfare assistance. Eventually the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was created which ended entitlements after 5 years and promoted dual parent households and working families.
- A large, but often overlooked, piece of the Civil Rights Movement was the advocacy for behavioral health consumers. This movement has continued and is carried on by Peer Support Specialists, Consumers and Allies.
- Managed Care systems promote quantitative treatment model to reduce cost often effecting the quality of treatment provided.
- In 1999, the US Surgeon General released the first ever Mental Health Report, which lead to the White House Conference on Mental Health.
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