[Please read all of this explantion before leaving comments, thank you.]

Original translation piece

I understand, the source term for translation is this:

centri di igiene/salute mentale

and not the abbreviations provided. So, I'm not so interested in the abbreviations.

But the example text is:

"...i centri di igiene mentale (CIM), che sono poi diventati centri di salute mentale (CSM), ..."

As the original translation piece points out mental hygiene*-centres eventually became (diventati) or were turned into community mental health centres. They are currently not known as 'mental hygiene centres.' The translation piece is obviously (at least to me) speaking about the change.

Explanation of abbreviations (not actually part of the source term)

The complete source term - centri di igiene/salute mentale - translates as mental hygiene-centre/community mental health centres. I doubt I would change the abbreviations to CMHC and MHC. For the abbreviations, I believe the Italian abbreviations are used as well in English. (they are in the two web references I provide below, as well as others) If they are written out in English, they have appeared as shown:

Centri di Igiene Mentale, CIM = Mental Hygiene-Centres, CIM [American 'centers']

Centri di Salute Mentale, CSM = Community Mental Health Centres, CSM [American 'centers']

Two documents with both terms as used in English appear in the Web references I provide below.

*Mental hygiene as psychiatric jargon

Example online:

"Psychotherapy in a mental hygiene clinic faces many problems not encountered in private practice."

Definition from one of many online sources:

mental hygiene the branch of psychiatry concerned with psychological methods

One source for the coinage of 'mental hygiene'

"mental hygiene the science of promoting mental health and preventing mental illness through the application of psychiatry and psychology. A more commonly used term today is mental health. In 1908, the modern mental hygiene movement took root as a result of public reaction to Clifford Beers's autobiography, A Mind That Found Itself, which described his experiences in institutions for the insane."

Important Wikipedia commentary on 'mental hygiene'

"In the mid-19th century, William Sweetzer was the first to clearly define the term "mental hygiene", which can be seen as the precursor to contemporary approaches to work on promoting positive mental health. Isaac Ray, one of thirteen founders of the American Psychiatric Association, further defined mental hygiene as an art to preserve the mind against incidents and influences which would inhibit or destroy its energy, quality or development.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Clifford Beers founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene and opened the first outpatient mental health clinic in the United States."

Translation of the Italian 'igiene' as it appears in the original question here to English:

hygiene

Contemporary relevance of these different terms

In the history of psychotherapy and the transfer of patients from state institutions to more public settings and clinics at the end of the 'mental hygiene' movement - combined with a change in Italy's management and philosophy of dealing with mental illness, we can see why Italy moved from using a term like mental hygiene-centres to a term like community mental health centres. These newer centres can be group homes, private apartments, walk-in clinics, social groups and much more.

It has become important recently as a debating point in 'developed' countries including Italy to make the difference between mental hygiene-centres, CIM's; versus community mental health centres, CSM's, as to whether the deinstitutionalization of patients is an experiment that worked or failed. This influences government budgets, legal terminology, classification of illnesses and similar.

I repeat, as I started my explanation:

As the original translation piece points out, mental hygiene-centres eventually became (diventati) or were turned into community mental health centres. The term 'mental hygiene' is slightly antiquated, and I suspect that's what the T1 [the piece being translated] is about.

"...i centri di igiene mentale (CIM), che sono poi diventati centri di salute mentale (CSM), ..."

and I repeat as well,

The two documents I provide as web references - among others - use the terms as I've written them as my answer in English, but both maintain the original Italian abbreviation form - but as the abbreviations are not part of the translation question, that point should be moot.

And to underline - I am not advocating for the use of the term 'mental-hygiene' - it's a slightly out-of-date term, but the translation piece is referring to the past term compared to the present.

More on the recent history of the conversion from mental hygiene-centres to community mental health centres in Northern Italy can be found here:

http://www.democrats.org.au/campaigns/mental_health_services...

I strongly suggest reading it to understand my explanation better. Plus, you might understand that the newer community mental health centres are not just clinics and hospitals, but include several types of social groups as well. So using 'clinics' would be an error. Anyhow, the word in the source term is 'centri' = 'centres/centers'; not 'clinics', 'hospitals' or 'offices'.

And to repeat - the source term in question is centri di igiene/salute mentale, not the abbreviations.

The example sentences taken from online sources and the two web references, plus this long expanation should indicate that both the terms I have suggested exist - have been used - are in use and relate to the source term.

[If hope you have read and understood all of my explanation.]

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Note added at 8 hrs (2010-07-06 01:23:57 GMT)
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To summarize

1. mental hygiene has a specific meaning and use, and because the translation is making a historical comparison, it is important to maintain its integrity and not insert some politically correct euphamism;
2. these are not just 'clinics', they can have many forms, so staying with the Italian 'centri' is the best bet;
3. the translation question is not about the abbreviations specifically, so I excluded them; and
4. to make the difference between the types of treatments it is important to use the slightly out-of-date 'mental hygiene' versus the more contemporary 'mental health' - instead of 'mental health' versus 'mental health' which is not the case here. Maybe for a list of contemporary services - but then the T1 wouldn't have used 'poi diventati.'

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Note added at 17 hrs (2010-07-06 10:17:33 GMT)
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By the way, 'mental hygiene' is also a term long used in the United Kingdom. There was the long running Mental Hygiene Council (founded 1923) and similar agencies in Australia, India and other English speaking realms. Italy also adopted the term. England and other countries have only recently started using the alternative 'mental health' and that is the point of the translation piece. So whether someone in the UK would 'discourage' the use of 'mental hygiene' or 'had never heard of it' is also moot.