Phoenix Mental Health

Phoenix, Arizona Mental Health

Phoenix is often called “Hoodzo”, which from the Navaho translates to "the place is hot." Phoenix is a city of clear, blue skies with an average of 300 sunny days per year and a temperature that slips over 100°F on an average of 89 days per year.

Phoenix has four times been chosen as an All-America City, which is rare among larger cities. The hallmark of an All-America City is the extent to which its private citizens get involved in the workings of their government. All the same, although Phoenix is the sixth-largest city in the U.S., (population of 1,321,045 - 2000 Census), mental health initiatives are as scarce as rain.

The Hohokamthe people lived in the “Valley of the Sun” as early as 300 BC. Although their civilization was quite advanced, these original settlers disappeared around 1450. In 1868, a group of farmers, headed by farmer Jack Swilling dug a canal from the Salt River to bring water to arid soil that was rich and fertile. Their small colony, Swilling’s Mill, was located approximately four miles from present-day Phoenix. The name Phoenix was adopted to represent the new civilization built from the ruins left behind by the Hohokamthe. Phoenix was incorporated as a city on February 5, 1881 and is today the capital and largest city in Arizona.

In 1871, the territory of Arizona adopted the concept that mental illness was a state responsibility and paved the way for the opening of the “Insane Asylum of Arizona” in 1887. In 1958, the Asylum was officially renamed Arizona State Hospital.

Arizona State Hospital is the only publicly funded, long-term hospital in Arizona providing services for severely mentally ill persons. In 2002, the hospital added a 16-bed adolescent facility, which was the first new treatment facility, added since 1952. In 2003, a new 200-bed adult inpatient facility opened. Both of these new facilities are used for those with serious mental health problems who have been court-ordered to receive hospitalization for mental illness.

The Mental Health Advocates Coalition of Arizona (MHACA) was founded in 1979. The MHACA proudly describes its founders as a “group of rabble rousers” who were determined to improve the mental health system in Arizona. Today the groups focus is on “keeping the grass roots advocacy pressure” on the state. Areas of involvement in mental health issues include state policies, mental health appropriations, Medicaid, access to mental health services, involuntary commitment, police shootings and death sentence laws involving the mentally ill.

Although Phoenix is endowed with nearly two dozen hospitals, few of them offer any psychiatric services other than inpatient evaluation and outpatient care. In the private sector, St. Luke’s Behavioral Hospital serves the mental health needs of the citizens of Phoenix. St. Luke’s Behavioral Hospital began as a 20-bed unit located on the third floor of St. Luke’s Medical Center. It has since expanded to become an 85-bed facility that treats the mental health problems of adults, adolescents and children in Phoenix.

See Also:

Phoenix Mental Health Clinics