Chapter: 5

The Alaska Mental Health Act (AMHA) passed the U.S. Congress in the late 1950s amidst much controversy and debate. The controversy surrounding the AMHA had to do not only with patient treatment and fiscal (mis)management at Morningside Hospital, but also with quite public discussions about the roles of different stakeholders (federal and state governments, private and public hospitals, professional associations, and the public generally) in shaping what mental health care should look like, both within Alaska, which was transforming from Territory to State at the time, and within the broader U.S. nation. By tracing discussions and debates over the AMHA, which we find in the archived papers of Edith Green (a U.S. Congressional Representative from Oregon), Robert Smith (a journalist for several major newspapers, including The Oregonian and the Anchorage Daily Times), and C. Earl Albrecht (Alaska Territory Commisioner of Health from 1945-1956), we are able to highlight how deliberations over public mental health care aligned with broader concerns about governance and democratic state-building in the mid 20th century U.S.  These papers are held at the Oregon Historical Society  and the University of University of Alaska-Anchorage/Alaska Pacific University Consortium Library archives.