Chapter: 6

The story of Morningside Hospital is, in many ways, a story about the ongoing challenges in building supportive, public mental healthcare systems in the United States. From the challenges with diagnosis, to the limitations on treatment modalities, to the discrepancies in treatment of patients from different genders and racial/ethnic backgrounds, to the broader public and political debates over mental health care funding, individual and community rights, and administrative and political accountability, the stories of the mid-20th century offer insights into how the U.S. might make its way forward towards developing more patient- and community-centered mental health support systems in the present. In this final chapter, we reflect on what our study of Morningside Hospital tells us about these ongoing challenges for U.S. mental healthcare, and offer some examples of novel approaches to mental health support from our work in Oregon and Alaska.