Mental health agency sees gradual growth

Nonprofit still working on improving services

When the Mental Health Association of Central Oklahoma opened its membership and fund-raising drive this month, board members paused to assess the agency's place and its value in the community. Executive director Charlotte New saw it as a 53-year evolvement of movements and attitudes which have been improved, but not perfected.

The private, nonprofit agency still works to "improve understanding, prevention and treatment of mental illness and to promote mental health through education, services and advocacy," but the approaches have changed, as well.

In Oklahoma City, as movements historically often do, the association started with a volunteer group of women from influential families. The 1950s brought a national reform endeavor and a small group of determined women, which included Mrs. Frank Buttram, Mrs. T. Burns Westman, Mrs. Bent Denman and Mrs. R. Gene Moss, contacted 2,200 of their friends to form the Mental Health Association in Oklahoma County. These women organized a massive effort to aid area mental hospitals, providing parties, pen pals, gardening and music therapy. They spoke to every civic and community group who would listen and urged high school students to pursue degrees in mental health fields.

"Little was known about the biological and chemical underpinnings of mental illness and persons suffering from a serious mental illness were typically confined in a state mental institution, sometimes for life. Treatment options might include ice water baths, electro-shock therapy or in extreme cases, lobotomies. Strait jackets and restraints were commonly used."

New medications became available during the 1960s, Charlotte said. With them, patients were able to live in their communities and try to lead productive lives, no longer hidden away. Most of the state's institutions were almost emptied. Unfortunately, she said, meager funding and resources left many former patients homeless without medicine.

Page 1 of 2

1 2 Next