ALAN & DIANE: MENTAL HEALTH CENTERS EXPOSED

The evolution of community mental health centers (MHMR) in the United States, tracing their origins to the deinstitutionalization movement of the mid-20th century and the Community Mental Health Act of 1963. It highlights how the shift from large institutions was driven by poor conditions in asylums and the emergence of new medications, with a noble aim for accessible, community-based care. The explanation then moves to how federal funding, particularly through Medicaid, incentivized states to move care from institutions to these centers, often leading to a system reliant on billing and paperwork rather than patient outcomes. Why the system currently appears bureaucratic and inefficient, attributing this to the focus on billable time, minimal oversight, and potential issues with misdiagnosis and over-medication.