America's first citizen mental health movement began in 1908 when Clifford Beers, a former mental patient, founded the precursor of the National Mental Health Association.

On March 26, 1946 in Sacramento's City Hall, 63 people gathered to form a local Society for Mental Hygiene. Led by Dr. Daniel J. Sullivan, an Auburn psychiatrist, Reverend Thomas Markham, and Miss Dorothy Brown, the group was concerned about inhumane conditions in mental facilities.

Ten years later we became an official chapter of the National Mental Health Association of Sacramento and currently provide a range of services supported by funds from United Way, local, state, federal and private grants, membership dues, donations, fees for services and fund raisers.

In 2008, we adopted the name Mental Health America in alignment with our national affiliate.  During this time, we also expanded our programs and services into northern California, and our official name is now Mental Health America of Northern California.

The Association's logo is a replica of the Liberty Bell. It symbolizes that patients will be forever free from the inhumane treatment that took place in institutions during the time Clifford Beers was hospitalized.
An actual bell was forged from shackles and chains of former hospital patients who had been chained to their beds. The bell is housed at the Mental Health America in Alexandria Virginia.