The History Of Psychiatry in New Mexico 1889-1989

About the Book

BOOK SUMMARY The history of psychiatry in New Mexico begins with the Territorial Legislature establishing the Insane Asylum in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1889. It wasn’t until after World War II that a few psychiatrists began to locate in New Mexico outside of the state institution and began to practice office-based psychiatry in New Mexico. When the starte legislature established the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1964 psychiatry began to take its place in the medical community. In 1970 it was deemed there was a sufficient number of psychiatrist in New Mexico to organize themselves into a District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association. Prior to that time the psychiatrists in New Mexico belonged to the Intermountain Psychiatric Association, a District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association that included many of the intermountain states. In the late 1960’s the number of psychiatrist in the New Mexico increased exponentially with the development of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and with its focus on community psychiatry. Community mental health services were generously funded with federal grants and grew rapidly in the late 1960s and 1970s. The first community mental health center funded in New Mexico was in Albuquerque, the Bernallilo County-University of New Mexico Mental Health-Mental Retardation Center. The University of New Mexico Mental Health Center started in 1967 with an annual budget of few thousand dollars grew to over 15 million dollars by 1989. In 1977 the Children’s Psychiatric Hospital opened its door for the treatment of children with psychiatric disorders and by 1989 had an annual budget of over six million dollars. During this same time frame the University of New Mexico School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry grew rapidly. In 1964, its first year, the Department of Psychiatry had three faculty members. That number grew and by 1989 the number was just under forty tenure-track members with another forty-five with Letter of Academic Title. In 1967 the Department of Psychiatry developed a residency program in psychiatry, a four-year program that trained physicians for the specialty of psychiatry. Over the next two and a half decades the Department trained over one hundred and fifteen psychiatrists, with approximately fifty percent remaining in New Mexico to practice in their chosen field. In 1979 a Child and Adolescent Fellowship, a two year program was initiated by the Child and Adolescent Division of the Department of Psychiatry, and in the next decade graduated over two dozen child psychiatrists many who remained in the state to provide services to New Mexico’s children and adolescents. During the first 50 years of psychiatry in New Mexico (1889-1939) the majority of psychiatric care was provided in the state mental institution, the New Mexico State Hospital but during the next fifty years significant changes occurred. The primary focus of psychiatric care was in the community either in outpatient care by office-based psychiatrists or in the two private institutions, Nazareth Hospital or Sandia Ranch Sanitarium. The state hospital in 1923 had 1350 beds whereas by 1989 that number of beds had dropped to around 200. This book is an attempt to trace the events of the past one hundred years that contributed to these changes.

About the Author

Author’s Biography Walter W. Winslow, MD, is professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry and a Life Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1966 serving as chairman of the department of psychiatry for 17 years. He was also director of the University of New Mexico mental health center from 1970 to 1991, the first comprehensive community mental health center in New Mexico. In 1978 he was appointed director of mental health programs that included the mental health center, the children's psychiatric hospital and the center for alcoholism, substance abuse and addictions. Prior to that he was on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Georgetown University Medical School. He also served ten years with the veterans administration hospitals in Cincinnati, Washington, DC. and in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Dr. Winslow was the fourth president of the New Mexico Psychiatric Association (1974), and served eight years as the New Mexico Representative to the Assembly of District Branches of the American Psychiatric Association head-quartered in Washington, DC. He was then elected and served four years as Area VII Representative to the Assembly of District Branches (1981-1985) representing New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii and the four Western Canadian Provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). In 1984 he won the prestigious Assembly Speaker’s Award of the American Psychiatric Association for his leadership in the planning and organization of continuing education programs for Area VII psychiatrists. He was appointed by New Mexico Governor David Cargo to the Governor’s Advisory Council on Drug Abuse in 1970 and was appointed by New Mexico Governor Bruce King to the Metropolitan Criminal Justice Coordinating Council in 1973. He is a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. He is also a Fellow (Emeritus) of the American College of Psychiatrists, and is a retired member of the American Medical Association, the New Medical Society, the Greater Albuquerque Medical Association, and the Psychiatric Medical Association of New Mexico. Dr. Winslow is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Psychiatry) (1964) and licensed in the State of New Mexico since 1968. He has traveled extensively in New Mexico having lectured and consulted with mental health programs from Farmington to Carlsbad and from Portales to Gallup. He has published over 50 articles and book chapters in the scientific literature and has presented scientific papers at national meetings in the U.S. and Canada. He and his wife Barbara have lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1966.