Scope and Content: Pursuant to MGLA c 19, the Dept. of Mental Health fulfills its responsibilities toward mentally ill persons in Massachusetts through a comprehensive program of services and facilities.  (It exercised a similar function for the mentally retarded until 1986, when a separate Dept. of Mental Retardation was established.)  In the early 1970s the department initiated a project to compile comprehensive information on mental health, mental retardation, and other human services available to residents of the thirty-nine mental health catchment areas of the state.  The project, originally planned by the Human Services Resource Information Register Task Force, was coordinated by a resource survey office in  the central office of the department and by the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, which worked with representatives of catchment areas to collect, edit, and verify information, and finally to compile area directories distributed by area offices.  (Originally an online information and referral system was also planned.)  Human services resource directory survey forms were sent to and collected from human service agencies throughout the state and were used as a basis for preparing area directories.
Arrangement: Arranged by region, thereunder by area
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