SLWK 422 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Indirect Costs, Hispanic And Latino Americans, Independent Living
Document Summary
Local areas could apply for funds to build community mental health centers at the local level. Those community mental health centers could apply for funds to staff the centers that had been built. Goal: to get rid of institutions by transferring state controlled institutional power to locally controlled mental health centers (with federal funding). A number of factors led to deinstitutionalization: advocacy, cost shifting, court cases. By the early 1970s, institutions were closing. People with mental illness were then, theoretically, served in the community mental health centers. Often, the level of care needed was not available, leading to heavy reliance on strong medications to mask symptoms. The mental health parity act of 2008 mandates that insurance companies treat mental health concerns the same as physical health concerns. Aims to end insurance discrimination against people with mental illness. Co-pays must be equivalent for mental health treatment and physical health treatment.
