Mental Health Awareness Month — A History

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Clifford Whittingham Beers was 24 years old when he attempted suicide. For the next three years, he was hospitalized in three different places, and after his release, wrote a book about his experiences.¹ This autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, was published five years later, and would provide a desperately needed spark for social reform of mental health services, which at the time included brutal, punitive…