80-51 AMENDING ZONING ORDINANCE SPECIAL USE REGULATIONS RESIDENTIAL CARE FACILITIES

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page 4 - City Plan Commission - 3/6/80 County Community Mental Health Board. He stated they had some ��aterial to distribute for the commission to look at later at their convenience. He went on to say that before he discussed the purpose of this petition, he thought it might be a good idea to give the history of inental health care in the country, state, and in this community. During our history as a country, until the middle of this century t�e problem of �ental health was taken out of the mainstream. During an assessment of manpower to be used ir. World War II , it was found that people were being turned away because of psychiatric problems . This , together with having to deal with the trauma of those returning from war, raised the national consciousness toward mental health care in this country. In 1946 a National Mental Health Act was passed by Congr�ss . Government developed a policy which created a National Organization of Mental Health. This and the introduction of anti-psvchatic drugs permitted people to be served on an out-patient basis . In 1955 there was instituted a Mental Health Stuay Act. This led to some major policy changes in viewing mental health. It might be described as a move away from institutior.al care Lo com�unity based care. All of the above led to the establishment of inental health centers across the country. Institutional care was reduced. This information is in the three-year plan which the Macon County Mer.tal Health 3oar� has prepared. It is contained on page 15 of this document, and it gives a number of statistics . It cites how these mental health centers have grown over the years , and 'now many persons they are now serving. Aaditionally, the mavement has gone forward under the present commission on mental health, whose report is also incorporated in the information given the commission. Mr. Wilkerson went on to say that the num�er of persons served locally has increased dramatically. Also, there are a couple of cases in the courts, which have resulted in persons being taken from the large institutions and being returned to local environment . The State of Illinois now has a plan for deinstitutionalizing their mer.tal health system. They plan to keep placing more and more perscns �rom institutions back into a communi�y environment . Just recently, the Chicago City Council passed a zoning request similar to the one here, and Mr. Wilkerson said that the staff of the 708 Board have been workine at this for four or five years .