Public health

AFSCME Public Policy Analysis Department Records

jruss — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:17:10 -0400

Part 1 of the AFSCME Public Policy Analysis Department Records focuses on Deinstitutionalization, particularly at Wayne County General Hospital (WCGH). The hospital complex was located in western Wayne County, Michigan, approximately 16 miles west of downtown Detroit. Deinstitutionalization represented a major change in philosophy for mental health treatment delivery and was the term given to the process whereby mentally ill patients were moved out of large public hospitals and into smaller community-based treatment facilities. Typically, large public (state) hospitals were then closed. The process began in 1955 with the introduction of new psychiatric medications by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) into state hospitals. These new medicines offered the possibility of less-restrictive care for the mentally ill outside of the inpatient hospital setting. The deinstitutionalization trend accelerated after the passage of the Community Mental Health Centers Act in 1963 and then continued throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Part 2 of the AFSCME Public Policy Analysis Department Records consists of material related to AFSCME’s national effort to affect public policy in federal, state, and local governments during the 1970s. The department conducted research on issues with the potential to impact AFSCME members, especially matters of Social Security, cost of living, pensions, healthcare, deinstitutionalization, public health care, and unemployment. From this research, the Public Policy Analysis Department created reports and studies meant to influence the policy created by government agencies. The bulk of Part II of this collection represents AFSCME’s work in the debate on deinstitutionalization and health care reform efforts between 1973 and 1978.

Part 3 of the AFSCME Public Policy Analysis Department Records contains correspondence, memos, reports, data, news articles, studies, speeches, and testimonies. Large portions of the records pertain to mental health and deinstitutionalization. Other topics covered include taxes, Reagan-era budget cuts and other economic issues.

Mel Ravitz Papers

cwesterman — Tue, 15 Dec 2015 15:22:23 -0500

Professor and Detroit community advocate Mel Ravitz held various posts in Detroit politics, including positions such as the Detroit City Plan Commission Director of Community Organization, on the Detroit City Council and as staff director of the Detroit-Wayne County Community Mental Health Services Board. As a professor at Wayne State University, Mr. Ravitz assisted in the formation of the University’s Department of Urban Planning.

Mr. Ravitz’s papers reflect his interests in community organizing and neighborhood revitalization, and serve to document the history of Detroit politics and the social and economic changes that the city faced during the later half of the twentieth century. In addition there are files relating to his activities to 2005.

The collection is in three parts.

Raymond Hood Papers

abarker — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:13:46 -0400

Raymond Hood served Detroit’s 7th District in the Michigan House of Representatives. Mr. Hood’s papers document his work in the Michigan state legislature, particularly his service in the Labor, Mental Health, Public Health, and Environment committees.

Beverly Takahashi Papers

pneirink — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 14:00:25 -0400

Beverly Takahashi worked as a doctoral student on their dissertation about organizing homecare workers. These records are a collection of documents about the fight for unionization of 74,000 home health-care workers in the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) between 1992-2001 in Southern California, as well as the fight and struggle between IHSS (In Home Supportive Services) and significantly disabled citizens receiving inadequate care that was promised to them. This collection includes correspondence, reports, personal statements, newsletters, draft contracts, collective bargaining agreements, and others.

United Community Services Records

drice — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:27:17 -0400

United Community Services, operated in Detroit since 1878 under various names, was organized by civic leaders to coordinate the work of different charitable institutions in the area, and raise funds for community welfare needs. Gradually, it became a clearinghouse for the investigation and referral of social service cases as well as an advocate for social and health care reform. The records of the UCS reflect the concerns of professional social workers, the plight of the poor in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Detroit, and the community's attempts to improve their condition through the work of public and private social welfare agencies.

Fresh Air Society, Camp Tamarack, Belle Isle, 1902

teller — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 10:24:57 -0400

Detroit children participating in a summer camp, probably on Belle Isle, organized by the Fresh Air Society, circa 1902. Records from the Fresh Air Society and Camp Tamarack are included in the JCA Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit Records.

(Podcast) Dirty Socks, Goose Fat, and Hot Toddies: Cold Remedies from the Folklore Archive

teller — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 14:59:22 -0500

Reuther Library archivists Elizabeth Clemens and Dan Golodner raise a glass for the regional and ethnic cold remedies collected in the Reuther's extensive Folklore Archive, including whiskey, honey, lemon, hot toddies, goose fat poultices, the color red, horehound, catnip tea, dirty socks, and the more dangerous turpentine and kerosene -- don't try those at home! read more »

[Podcast] Remembering the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center

teller — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Dr. Beth Widmaier Capo discusses the Detroit Feminist Women’s Health Center and the role health practitioners there—including her mother—played in empowering women to understand their bodies and take control of their health in the 1970s. read more »