Communities Taking Care of Their Own – and Saving U.S. Society Billions: An Economical and Ethical Analysis of the Promise of the 1963 Community Mental Health Care Act Realized

Editor's Notes The Community Mental Health Care Act was signed into law 22 days before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, October 31, 1963. This Act promised to build 1500 Community Care Centers across the nation as a more humane and ethical way to provide care for those of us who are dealing with mental illness, and promised to shut down all of the existing cold, custodial mental hospitals. All of the federal mental hospitals were shut down – but the community centers were never built. Veering off in an innovative approach, this study provides ethical and benefits-cost analyses towards that idea seed of mental health care being provided in a patient’s own community, with the federal and state governments playing only a supporting resources and policy empowerment role, and the community’s taxes to fund care coming back to the community.