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Part: 12 Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536 Page 152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181 of 1143
discharged on the average of 90 days after being sent to on, with current methods. But as each state has an appropriation and as each state has different legislative problems, and many governors, although they are members of our Committee--nearly every governor of every state is an Honorary Chairman of the National Committee Against Mental Illness--very few of them have made any major effort to promote the improvement of the state hospitals and to begin to close some of them down. Some of them could be closed, if there were an effort made to take care of people before they get to a state hospital.
However, there is a decline--up until '52 and '53 there was an increase every year of about each year. The number of cases entering state hospitals increased and they became more and more overcrowded--and for the first time, in '55, when the drugs began to be generally used, there's been a decline in numbers of cases, in the total numbers in the state hospitals and there's been a marked increase in discharges, especially in New York State. The increase of discharges in '60 in New York State was something like 72 percent as compared with 1955. So, there's an enormous lot to do, because the mechanics are all out of date in terms of what we know, to train people. The states didn't know what to train people for, so they didn't do any training. However, we're hoping that there'll be more Federal participation in matching grants to states so that they can do a better job on state levels, and that's what we're working on now.
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