The 1960s were a time of social turmoil in the United States and many other countries. Traditional ways of doing things were questioned and rejected in many spheres of life ranging from education to lifestyles. The field of mental health was no exception to the currents of change that swept through the US and one of the key shifts to emerge was the development of what came to be known as the community mental health movement — a new approach that focused on treating people with mental health disorders in their local communities rather than in distant, huge and often impersonal public mental hospitals. This movement was fueled, in part, by the passage of legislation that provided funds for the construction of community mental health centers throughout the United States.

While the assertive community treatment movement produced many beneficial effects, it did not achieve all of the challenging goals it established for itself and in some aspects it was not fully in keeping with the scientific approach to mental disorders preferred by psychologists. But the movement did lead, gradually, to the emergence of a new subfield of psychology known as community psychology — an approach that focuses on promoting mental health through positive change in the principles as well.

Factors influencing assertive community treatment of mental disorders:

First, it adopts an ecological perspective, the view that the causes of mental disorders originate, at least in part, from the social, economic and physical environments in which people live such as poverty, disintegrating communities and poor schools. This perspective contrasted sharply with the traditional view that mental disorders originate from factors within individuals. Because ecological factors often play a role, community psychologists argued that effective treatment of mental disorders should involve efforts to change the social systems in which people live, not just the people themselves.

Second, community psychology emphasizes on prevention through interventions designed to prevent mental disorders from developing in the first place. Three distinct types of prevention became the focus of attention— primary prevention, secondary prevention and tertiary prevention.