deinstitutionalization /dē·in′stityo̅o̅′shənal′īzā″shən/ [L, de + instituere, to put in place] , a movement beginning in the 1960s and carried through to the 1990s in the United States, Canada, and other countries worldwide, decommissioning large mental institutions with a goal of psychosocial rehabilitation and reintegration of their patients into community mental health settings and/or much smaller facilities. Community mental health clinics, group homes, and psychosocial day programs developed in response.
