Mental Health Systems Act of 1980

Last updated

Mental Health Systems Act of 1980
Great Seal of the United States (obverse).svg
Long titleA bill to improve the provision of mental health services and otherwise promote mental health throughout the United States; and for other purposes.
Acronyms (colloquial)MHSA
Enacted bythe 96th United States Congress
Citations
Public law Pub.L. 96-398
Codification
Acts amended Community Mental Health Centers Act, Public Health Service Act, Social Security Act
Titles amended42
U.S.C. sections created 42 U.S.C.   §§ 94019523
U.S.C. sections amended 42 U.S.C.   § 210, § 225a, § 242a, § 300m, § 1396b, § 2689
Legislative history

The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 (MHSA) was United States legislation signed by President Jimmy Carter which provided grants to community mental health centers. In 1981 President Ronald Reagan, who had made major efforts during his Governorship to reduce funding and enlistment for California mental institutions, pushed a political effort through the Democratically controlled House of Representatives and a Republican controlled Senate to repeal most of MHSA. [1] The MHSA was considered landmark legislation in mental health care policy.

Contents

History

Coinciding with a movement during the 1970s for rehabilitation of people with severe mental illnesses, the Mental Health Systems Act supported and financed community mental health support systems, which coordinated general health care, mental health care, and social support services. [2] The law followed the 1978 Report of the President's Commission on Mental Health, which made recommendations for improving mental health care in the United States. While some concerns existed about the methodology followed by the President's Committee, the report served as the foundation for the MHSA, which in turn was seen as landmark legislation in U.S. mental health policy. [3]

The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, passed by a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and a Republican-controlled Senate, and signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 13, 1981, repealed most of the Mental Health Systems Act. The Patients' Bill of Rights, section 501, was not repealed; per Congressional record, the Congress felt that state provisions were sufficient and section 501 served as a recommendation to states to review and refine existing policies. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Reagan</span> President of the United States from 1981 to 1989

Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent conservative figures in American history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Elizabeths Hospital</span> Hospital in D.C., U.S.

St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. The hospital opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for the Insane, the first federally operated psychiatric hospital in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosalynn Carter</span> First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981

Eleanor Rosalynn Carter is an American writer and activist who served as the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981 as the wife of President Jimmy Carter. For decades, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, including mental health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Ronald Reagan</span> U.S. presidential administration from 1981 to 1989

Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over Democratic incumbent President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. Four years later, in the 1984 election, he defeated Democrat former vice president Walter Mondale to win re-election in a larger landslide. Reagan was succeeded by his vice president, George H. W. Bush. Reagan's 1980 election resulted from a dramatic conservative shift to the right in American politics, including a loss of confidence in liberal, New Deal, and Great Society programs and priorities that had dominated the national agenda since the 1930s.

Care in the Community is a British policy of deinstitutionalisation, treating and caring for physically and mentally disabled people in their homes rather than in an institution. Institutional care was the target of widespread criticism during the 1960s and 1970s, but it was not until 1983 that the government of Margaret Thatcher adopted a new policy of care after the Audit Commission published a report called 'Making a Reality of Community Care' which outlined the advantages of domiciliary care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982</span> United States federal law

The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, also known as TEFRA, is a United States federal law that rescinded some of the effects of the Kemp-Roth Act passed the year before. Between summer 1981 and summer 1982, tax revenue fell by about 6% in real terms, caused by the dual effects of the economy dipping back into recession and Kemp-Roth's reduction in tax rates, and the deficit was likewise rising rapidly because of the fall in revenue and the rise in government expenditures. The rapid rise in the budget deficit created concern among many in Congress. TEFRA was created to reduce the budget gap by generating revenue through closure of tax loopholes; introduction of tougher enforcement of tax rules; rescinding some of Kemp-Roth's reductions in marginal personal income tax rates that had not yet gone into effect; and raising some rates, especially corporate rates. TEFRA was introduced November 13, 1981 and was sponsored by US Representative Pete Stark of California. After much deliberation, the final version was signed by President Ronald Reagan on September 3, 1982.

In November 2004, voters in the U.S. state of California passed Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), which has been designed to expand and transform California's county mental health service systems. The MHSA is funded by imposing an additional one percent tax on individual, but not corporate, taxable income in excess of one million dollars. In becoming law in January 2005, the MHSA represents the latest in a Californian legislative movement, begun in the 1990s, to provide better coordinated and more comprehensive care to those with serious mental illness, particularly in underserved populations. Its claim of successes thus far, such as with the development of innovative and integrated Full Service Partnerships (FSPs), are not without detractors who highlight many problems but especially a lack of oversight, large amount of unspent funds, poor transparency, lack of engagement in some communities, and a lack of adherence to required reporting as challenges MHSA implementation must overcome to fulfill the law's widely touted potential.

Laura's Law is a California state law that allows for court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment. To qualify for the program, the person must have a serious mental illness plus a recent history of psychiatric hospitalizations, jailings or acts, threats or attempts of serious violent behavior towards self or others. A complete functional outline of the legal procedures and safeguards within Laura's Law has been prepared by NAMI San Mateo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mental Health Act 1983</span> Law in England and Wales

The Mental Health Act 1983 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It covers the reception, care and treatment of mentally disordered people, the management of their property and other related matters, forming part of the mental health law for the people in England and Wales. In particular, it provides the legislation by which people diagnosed with a mental disorder can be detained in a hospital or police custody and have their disorder assessed or treated against their wishes, informally known as "sectioning". Its use is reviewed and regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The Act was significantly amended by the Mental Health Act 2007. A white paper proposing changes to the act was published in 2021 following an independent review of the act by Simon Wessely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">State Hospital</span> Hospital in South Lanarkshire, Scotland

The State Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in the village of Carstairs, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It provides care and treatment in conditions of high security for patients from Scotland and Northern Ireland. The hospital is managed by the State Hospitals Board for Scotland which is a public body accountable to the First Minister of Scotland through the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. It is a Special Health Board, part of the NHS Scotland and the only hospital of its kind within Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Community Mental Health Act</span> 1963 American law

The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA) was an act to provide federal funding for community mental health centers and research facilities in the United States. This legislation was passed as part of John F. Kennedy's New Frontier. It led to considerable deinstitutionalization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presidency of Jimmy Carter</span> U.S. presidential administration from 1977 to 1981

Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. His presidency ended following his defeat in the 1980 election to Republican Ronald Reagan. Aged 99, he is the oldest living, longest-lived and longest-married president, and has the longest post-presidency. He is the fourth-oldest living former state leader.

<i>Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine</i> 1961 live album (spoken word) by Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine is a 1961 LP featuring the actor and future U.S. president Ronald Reagan. In this ten-minute recording, Reagan "criticized Social Security for supplanting private savings and warned that subsidized medicine would curtail Americans' freedom" and that "pretty soon your son won't decide when he's in school, where he will go or what he will do for a living. He will wait for the government to tell him." Roger Lowenstein called the LP part of a "stealth program" conducted by the American Medical Association.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Previously, he was the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and acted in Hollywood films from 1937 to 1964, the same year he energized the American conservative movement. Reagan's basic foreign policy was to equal and surpass the Soviet Union in military strength, and put it on the road to what he called "the ash heap of history". By 1985, he began to cooperate closely with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whom he became friends and negotiated large-scale disarmament projects with. The Cold War was fading away and suddenly ended as the Soviets lost control of Eastern Europe almost overnight in October 1989, nine months after Reagan was replaced in the White House by his vice president, George H. W. Bush, who was following Reagan's policies. The dissolution of the Soviet Union took place in December 1991. In terms of the Reagan Doctrine, he promoted military, financial, and diplomatic support for anti-communist insurgencies in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and numerous other countries. For the most part, local communist power collapsed when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Community mental health services (CMHS), also known as community mental health teams (CMHT) in the United Kingdom, support or treat people with mental disorders in a domiciliary setting, instead of a psychiatric hospital (asylum). The array of community mental health services vary depending on the country in which the services are provided. It refers to a system of care in which the patient's community, not a specific facility such as a hospital, is the primary provider of care for people with a mental illness. The goal of community mental health services often includes much more than simply providing outpatient psychiatric treatment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">There you go again</span> American political catchphrase

"There you go again" was a phrase spoken during the second presidential debate of 1980 by Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan to his Democratic opponent, incumbent President Jimmy Carter. Reagan would use the line in a few debates over the years, always in a way intended to disarm his opponent.

The Social Security Disability Benefits Reform Act of 1984 was signed into law by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan on 9 October 1984. Its purpose was to ensure more accurate, consistent and uniform disability determination decisions under the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program, and to ensure that applicants were treated fairly and humanely. It has been described as "one of the key pieces of social welfare legislation" enacted toward the end of Reagan's first term in office.

Sidney Katz, MD was a pioneering American physician, scientist, educator, author, and public servant who developed the Index of Independence of Activities for Daily Living (ADLs) in a career spanning more than sixty years. He made several other advances in geriatric care, including the U.S. Nursing Home Reform Act of 1987, which established basic rights for nursing home residents. Katz received several public and private awards, including the Maxwell A. Pollak Award (1993) and the American Geriatrics Society’s (AGS) Foundation for Health in Aging (2001). The AGS award was also won by former US President Jimmy Carter and poet Maya Angelou.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mental Health Act 1959</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Mental Health Act 1959 was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales which had, as its main objectives, to abolish the distinction between psychiatric hospitals and other types of hospitals and to deinstituitionalise mental health patients and see them treated more by community care.

The United States has experienced two waves of deinstitutionalization, the process of replacing long-stay psychiatric hospitals with less isolated community mental health services for those diagnosed with a mental disorder or developmental disability.

References

  1. Ford, Matt (June 8, 2015). "Cook County Jail, America's Largest Mental Hospital is a Jail". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  2. Goldman, H. H.; Morrissey, J. P.; Ridgely, M. S.; Frank, R. G.; Newman, S. J.; Kennedy, C. (August 1992). "Lessons on the program on chronic mental illness" (PDF). Health Affairs. 11 (3): 51–68. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.11.3.51. PMID   1398453 . Retrieved September 13, 2015.
  3. Thomas, Alexander (1998). "Ronald Reagan and the Commitment of the Mentally Ill: Capital, Interest Groups, and the Eclipse of Social Policy". Electronic Journal of Sociology. 3 (4).[ dead link ]
  4. Lyon-Levine, Martha; Levine, Martin; Zusman, Jack (March 1985). "Developments in Patients' Bill of Rights Since the Mental Health Systems Act" (PDF). Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter. 9 (2). Retrieved September 13, 2015.

Further reading