This month marks the 60th anniversary of one of the most dreadful pieces of legislation in American history. It was the Community Mental Health Act, signed by President John F. Kennedy on Halloween, Oct. 31, 1963. The plan was to replace giant state psychiatric hospitals with 1,500 community clinics. As miracle drugs emerged to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, reformers argued there was no longer good reason to keep so many people in locked psychiatric […]