As Maryland debates further shifts of the mentally ill population from institutional to community-based care, it's being challenged by an explosion of patients in need of treatment and a system that may be improperly structured to accommodate them in the community, officials say. Read more.

Poor word choices still pop up in the media, especially in headlines where political correctness may be sacrificed in favor of cleverness. Read more.

The HOPE Wellness and Recovery Center has provided a critical safety net for the homeless since its opening in February 2001. Read more.

Montgomery, Howard, Harford and Prince George’s counties all have dedicated training programs in Maryland to teach police officers how to respond to mentally ill people in crisis. Read more.

John Allen, a former psychiatric patient, runs support groups and one-on-one sessions with patients transitioning out of mental institutions. Read more.

History of U.S. Mental Institutions

In the early 1800s, most of the mentally ill in the U.S. were housed in brutal prison conditions. Efforts by early reformers ushered in institutions for the mentally ill, which were considered more humane. But in recent decades, officials and advocates have pressed for deinstitutionalization. Many mentally ill are now being treated in community settings -- but others are finding themselves in prisons or in shelters. View the timeline.

Institutions in Maryland

Despite a decades-long effort to move mentally ill patients from state-run psychiatric hospitals into community settings, Maryland still operates five institutions for the mentally ill and two for those with developmental disabilities, along with two facilities for children and two for chronically ill adults. Click an icon to learn more about a facility. See larger map.

About This Project

How successful is Maryland's health system at treating the mentally disabled? What are police doing to prepare themselves to respond to those in crisis? And how well do the media cover those with disabilities?

Those are some of the questions a team of University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism students asked while reporting a project on the national push toward deinstitutionalization. The health multimedia reporting project was launched with support from Kaiser Health News service and the college's Capital News Service advanced reporting program and was led by faculty member Chris Harvey.