Katherine Bell, M.S.I.S of the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, published an article titled "The Mental Health Systems Act of 1980" in DttP: Documents to the People. In it, she discusses the history, motivation, and effects of the act.
The MHSA was developed following the groundwork of the Public Health Service Act of 1944 signed by President Franklin Roosevelt and the Community Mental Health Act (CMHA) of 1963 signed by President John F. Kennedy.
The wife of President Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn, had supported mental health funding since her husband's time as Georgia's governor starting in 1970. Soon after Carter became president, he created an executive order to start the President's Commission on Mental Health with Rosalynn as honorary chairperson. In 1979, President Carter asked Congress to begin drafting a mental health systems act leading to the formation of the MHSA which Carter signed on October 7, 1980.
However, Ronald Reagan was elected in November of 1980 and by August of 1981, he had repealed the act by signing the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Kennedy's CMHA of 1963 was also repealed by Reagan leaving only section 501 of the MHSA in place. As a result, deinstitutionalization increased because there was less federal funding. Bell believes that the MHSA was repealed too soon for its impact to be realized.
