Mental Health Policy in America: Myths and Realities

Interactions between Mental Health and Law Enforcement Systems: Problems and Prospects for Cooperation

“…mal safety net that formal systems were created as alternatives. As Grob (1994) states, In the early nineteenth century Americans were preoccupied with creating new organizational structures-including schools, prisons, juvenile homes-designed to assume functions previously assigned to families and neighbors. The creation of a system of public asylums reflected the same concerns that underlay the growth of institutions; fears that traditional informal mechanisms no longer sufficed, and a faith that new institutions would resolve long-standing problems.…”

“…The Boston police, for example, provided overnight shelter to well over 9,000 homeless persons in 1856 and to over 17,000 in 1880 (Wilson 1974). Correctional facilities, jails, or state-funded almshouses housed 8 percent of the 2,600 persons labeled as "insane" in Massachusetts in 1854 (Grob 1992).…”

Perspective: Public-Sector Mental Health Care: New Challenges

“…In the Fall 1992 issue about half of the papers primarily addressed public-sector concerns. 1 Only a single paper primarily addressed managed care. 2 In contrast, the Fall 1995 issue was subtitled "Mental Health in the Age of Managed Care."…”

Mad Kings, Paper Houses, and an Asylum in Rural Ireland

“…For general analyses of asylums and their technologies, see Donnelly 1983;Foucault 1973;Goffman 1961;Porter 1987aPorter , 1987bScull 1979Scull , 1981andSkultans 1975, 1979. For progressive histories that include the asylum as part of a scientific assault on a medical condition, see, among others, Grob 1992Grob , 1994Roth and Kroll 1986;and Rothman 1990. Analyses of specific institutions can be found in Charuty 1985;Dwyer 1987;Fisher 1973;and Tornes 1984.…”