The community mental health movement of the mid-1960s included a novel
belief that psychiatric hospitals should be located near population
centers. The author studied the extent to which recent site configurations
of state psychiatric hospitals have reflected that conceptual change. In
the period 1960-1980, a large number of rural state hospitals closed; at
the same time a smaller number of state hospitals were opened. Although one
set of states moved in the direction of an urbanized setting concept,
another set of states held firm in its devotion to the rural hospital
tradition.Abstract Teaser