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How the Federal Government Destroyed the Mental Illness Treatment System
Oxford University Press
July 2013
On Sale: July 12, 2013
224 pages
ISBN: 0199988714
EAN: 9780199988716
Kindle: B00DW70FAI
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered an historic
speech on mental illness and retardation. He described
sweeping new programs to replace "the shabby treatment of
the many millions of the mentally disabled in custodial
institutions" with treatment in community mental health
centers. This movement, later referred to as
"deinstitutionalization," continues to impact mental health
care. Though he never publicly acknowledged it, the program
was a tribute to Kennedy's sister Rosemary, who was born
mildly retarded and developed a schizophrenia-like illness.
Terrified she'd become pregnant, Joseph Kennedy arranged for
his daughter to receive a lobotomy, which was a disaster and
left her severely retarded.
Fifty years after
Kennedy's speech, E. Fuller Torrey's book provides an inside
perspective on the birth of the federal mental health
program. On staff at the National Institute of Mental Health
when the program was being developed and implemented, Torrey
draws on his own first-hand account of the creation and
launch of the program, extensive research, one-on-one
interviews with people involved, and recently unearthed
audiotapes of interviews with major figures involved in the
legislation. As such, this book provides historical material
previously unavailable to the public. Torrey examines the
Kennedys' involvement in the policy, the role of major
players, the responsibility of the state versus the federal
government in caring for the mentally ill, the political
maneuverings required to pass the legislation, and how
closing institutions resulted not in better care - as was
the aim - but in underfunded programs, neglect, and higher
rates of community violence. Many now wonder why public
mental illness services are so ineffective. At least
one-third of the homeless are seriously mentally ill, jails
and prisons are grossly overcrowded, largely because the
seriously mentally ill constitute 20 percent of prisoners,
and public facilities are overrun by untreated individuals.
As Torrey argues, it is imperative to understand how we got
here in order to move forward towards providing better care
for the most vulnerable
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