President John F. Kennedy's proposal to transform the mental health system by shifting funding away from public psychiatric hospitals and toward community-based services was attractive to social workers, especially those who worked in highly restrictive hospital settings and residential schools for mentally challenged citizens. Though Kennedy
did not live to witness the implementation of a national network of community mental health clinics, his signature enacted the Mental Retardation and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act several months before his death in 1963. The campaign to construct a seamless web of community-based inpatient and outpatient services marked a new beginning in social work involvement in publicly funded clinical services that were accessible to moderate- and low-income
individuals and families.