First federally funded community MH center celebrates 50 years

Abstract

The first federally funded community mental health center in the nation is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer, The Daily Oklahoman reported Aug. 8. The Central Oklahoma Community Mental Health Center opened in 1969 in Norman as part of the movement to take people out of institutions and provide them outpatient care in the communities where they lived. Vocal leaders in Congress pushed for Oklahoma to get funding for the first center after President John F. Kennedy signed the Community Mental Health Act in October 1963, said Cathy Billings, the center's director. Dr. Hayden Donahue — who served as the first director of Oklahoma's mental health department and superintendent at Central State Hospital (now Griffin Memorial Hospital) in Norman — was a big part of that movement, said Jeff Dismukes, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. “He was a huge national figure who did some cutting‐edge things in mental health,” Dismukes said. The Central Oklahoma Community Mental Health Center has served thousands of Oklahomans from Norman and surrounding communities. It has been a leader in the delivery of innovative treatment for mental health and substance use, said Terri White, state commissioner of mental health. “We were the first in the country to begin bringing services to people at the community level, expanding access to care and finding ways to address community needs,” White said.