Welcome to Rumble Strip, I'm America Heilman.

And this is a Vermont public radio series that I produced called They Are Us inside Vermont's

Mental Health Care System.

Today's show is sort of the title show.

It's called They Are Us. Welcome.

I think the biggest problem in mental health care

is for those people who have the most serious conditions,

and this is a very small number. who have the most serious conditions.

And this is a very small number,

but the fact that we can't provide immediate access to care

is clearly the number one problem, and it needs to be addressed. And it needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed soon.

That's Ken Libertoff. He was the director of the Vermont Association for Mental Health for 30 years,

and the problem he describes isn't new, and it isn't unique to Vermont.

In 1963, the Kennedy administration passed the Community Mental Health Act.

It was a response to the inhumane treatment of people with severe mental illness who were being

warehoused in mental hospitals.

The idea of this legislation was to close the hospitals and

integrate people back into their communities with the supports of new community

mental health programs. Also, that people with serious mental illness

be given a chance to recover and make meaningful lives

in the real world.

But the community mental health programs

...