Abby's Deal: A History of Concord Massachusetts Community Mental Health Center

Community mental health centers led the transformation from custodial state mental hospital to community-based care. Abby s Deal illuminates the people, the issues, and the work at historic Concord s CMHC, from the 1960s to the present. Ideas, funding, politics, and people take their places in this instructive, sometimes personal account. This case history, based on Dr. Merrifield s experience as Director of Inpatient Services at the CMHC, many interviews, and thoughtful research, asks, Did this CMHC fail?