Thee Mental Health Association in Michigan document the organization's efforts to promote and improve mental health care in the sate of Michigan. The record group includes correspondence, mailing, board and committee files, reports, files on annual meetings and regional meetings and workshops, MHAM publications and newsletters, and photographs. The records are arranged into the following series: Administrative Records, Conferences and Meetings, Newsletters, Reports, Site Visitation Program, Topical Files, Clippings, and Visual Materials.
The Mental Health Association in Michigan began in 1937, and since that time has served as an advocacy organization for mental health issues. Even though it is not a government agency, the association has participated in crafting legislation and advising elected officials on topics related to mental health care. Originally called the Michigan Society for Mental Health, the organization has always viewed itself as working on behalf of both mental health care providers and consumers.
In 1944, MHAM obtained passage of the Michigan Visiting Teacher (school social worker) Act, which provided counseling for mentally ill children and their families.
During the next decade, the association rallied citizen support for a successful state bond issue referendum, which dramatically increased the number of state psychiatric hospital beds and provided funding for Hawthorn Center (for mentally ill children) and Lafayette Clinic (research, training, and care facility).
In 1952, MHAM became a participating member of the United Way of Michigan.
MHAM also obtained the first public appropriation (in the early 1960's) for community aftercare services in Michigan; initiated and marshaled the forces for enactment of the state's first Community Mental Health law (Public Act 54 of 1963) and the subsequent birth of the Michigan Association of Community Mental Health Boards.
The organization served as a catalyst for the modernization and humanization of state mental health statutes, resulting in passage of the landmark Michigan Mental Health Code (Public Act 258 of 1974).
In 1977, the Society changed its name to the Mental Health Association in Michigan.
In the next decade, MHAM drafted and introduced the legislation which eventually became the so-called "Children's Bill of 1984," governing the standards for voluntary admission and discharge of children to and from psychiatric hospitals. Not long afterwards, the association founded the self-help group Schizophrenics Anonymous, which has since spread across the country and abroad.
Beginning in 1990, MHAM established and conducted the first community-based monitoring programs of residential settings providing services to mentally ill persons.
