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The costs became a problem because the courts ruled that people providing for their own keep was equal to slavery. There is a closed asylum near me that was open from 1865 until around 20 years ago. It didn't require much outside financing because the people there raised much of their own food. We decided that was the same as holding them as slaves. So as you note........off to the streets they went.
The last time this was brought up I noted that this was indeed a very difficult problem to address but it will never be addressed as long as so many want to push their political agenda's instead.
If these people were capable their own upkeep and of growing their own food, they probably didn't need to be committed. I am guessing there was an operation going there to channel federal or state funding to a private owner who used these patients only for his financial gain. So in effect, it was imprisonment.
There is no such thing as being mentally healthy. We all have our own issues. It's how we deal with those issues that make us different. A person who acts on his issues doesn't necessarily imply that he was less mentally healthy than the office worker who was able to keep it together. Why remove a few people from society when society is full of people walking the thin line between action and restraint?
The same logic can be applied to gun ownership. What's the purpose of limiting the rights of a few when you can't actually prevent the actions of one?
We seem to have the same story over an over. Mentally ill people, getting guns, and killing lots of people.
How do we address that? We used to lock insane people up in sanitariums to keep society safe. That ended due to cost in the 80s. Maybe we should reconsider that?
It's not just cost.
In order to "put away" a mentally ill person, you have to violate their right to roam free among us.
In order to do that, you have to prove IMMEDIATE danger to themselves or other (not just the potential).
This distinction is a VERY big deal, and it takes a lot of immediate evidence to get it done.
We have suicidal people come through our ED all the time - if they tell the deputies they are no longer suicidal, there is more often than not no case to hold them and they go on their way.
You can't just grab people and lock 'em up. Even a psych HOLD requires concrete reason.
So how do you propose we "lock up" people who haven't even done anything yet besides wear tin foil hats or conspire against aliens in their basement?
The other thing is medication. These people are crazy. You think crazy people are compliant medication takers? Seriously? Some are. Some are GREAT. Some of them are not. Some of them want to be but can never find the right combination of meds. Some of them never seek help until it's too late.
If these people were capable their own upkeep and of growing their own food, they probably didn't need to be committed. I am guessing there was an operation going there to channel federal or state funding to a private owner who used these patients only for his financial gain. So in effect, it was imprisonment.
Some mentally ill do very well with a rigorous set schedule. When there is no one to provide that schedule for them they run into problems. Not everyone in the asylum was allowed out either.
As I said though, it's a very complicated problem that we are refusing to address to promote our political agenda's.
It didn't end because if costs in the 80's. It ended because of "rights" of the mentally ill in the late 70's. It was decided that reform was needed and that people couldn't be forced to take receive treatment. This was one of those "the best intentions" things.
That "right" thing and "best of intentions" was a wolf in sheep's clothing. It was all about money, nothing more.
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. Get real. You should be embarrassed to even type that.
