50th anniversary of mental health act is reason to celebrate, but more work needs to be done to realize President Kennedy’s visionOctober 31, 2013

Today’s 50th anniversary of the signing of the Community Mental Health Act is reason to celebrate. There have been significant advances in making mental health services more accessible in local communities over the past five decades.

But the occasion is also a reminder of how we have fallen short in realizing the vision President Kennedy had when he signed the landmark act on Oct. 31, 1963. There is much work to be done.

President Kennedy was the first president to make a major policy speech on the importance of community mental health. It was the last piece of legislation he signed before his assassination. In 50 years we’ve made a lot of progress, but we have not met the promise of putting adequate resources in the community as we have moved away from institutionalization. That’s why we see such a problem with people who have mental illness who wind up in jails or prisons or homeless, instead of in treatment programs.

There are many inspiring stories about hope and recovery and resiliency for people with mental illnesses, but we haven’t met President Kennedy’s goal of adequate community resources. We haven’t met that goal of being able to talk about mental health as much as we should, as President Kennedy called upon us to do. But the Community Mental Health Act was a historic step, and it started us down a path where we have seen a lot of advances.

The history of Bert Nash predates the Community Mental Health Act by 13 years. In 1950, community leaders established the Bert Nash Clinic as a “living memorial” in honor of Dr. Nash, who had been a staunch advocate for community mental health services before his death of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1947 at the age of 48.

Lawrence has long been a leader in providing mental health services to its residents. A community mental health initiative was started in 1922 when the local Kiwanis Club voted to sponsor a monthly psychiatric clinic “for the diagnosis and treatment of nervous and mental ailments.” For more than 90 years, there has been a community effort to provide mental health services to people who otherwise couldn’t get it or couldn’t afford it.

So, thank you to the Bert Nash Center staff as well as all of our community partners for their continued dedication and their support to provide comprehensive mental health services to all Douglas County residents.

-- David Johnson, CEO, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center