Shifts in public opinion and federal policy bring challenges to Cushing, but support from the community remains clear. The “Pushing for Cushing” movement is born.
Two key federal acts in the early to mid 1960s bring changes to the patient mix at Cushing. The 1963 federal Community Mental Health Act closed large hospitals to decentralize mental health services and Cushing received many patients with nowhere else to go. In 1965, the Social Security Amendments Act established Medicare. This and Medicaid became the largest sources of funding for Cushing by the late 1960s. The reimbursements were helpful, but receiving so many public dollars meant that Cushing was held to federal safety standards that the facility - which already surpassed its initially anticipated shelf life - was not equipped to meet. Simultaneously, group care facilities were under scrutiny from the public eye as some residential schools were closing due to poor conditions. The practical concerns of adapting to the safety standards, paired with the social scrutiny, were challenging.
This was the operating environment that Cushing found itself in in the 1960s and 1970s. Upon hearing suddenly from the state Department of Mental Health in 1977 that the agency planned to close the facility, hundreds of local advocates, legislators, and families acted quickly. Less than a week later, they organized and rallied to keep the facility open, keeping the ~500 older adult patients local (and saving ~400 jobs in the process) - proudly “Pushing for Cushing”. The state agency responded favorably to the backlash; about one year from the initial announcement, the legislature appropriated over one million dollars towards renovating and improving the facility.
