All aboard!
What are the chances Ozzy would have been locked up under the new EO?
Any thoughts on how long it will take before unhoused citizens are detained?
Crazy, but that’s how it goes
Millions of people living as foes
Maybe, it’s not too late
To learn how to love and forget how to hate
RIP Ozzy.
When Reagan did away with the mental health institutes, it created a lot of problems, so I am glad they are turning that around. We will have to see how it is instituted. Nobody should be living and going to the bathroom on the streets.
Michigan closed most of it’s mental hospitals. I can’t help but wonder what the (L&Ses) in Lansing did with all the money that freed up (sarcasm)
Seems FEMA money is going to building migrant concentration camps, rather than disaster relief. Any bets the “homeless” institutions turn into forced labor camps, so that the homeless “learn the dignity of work” (snark)?
Steve
When I was growing up the concept of society providing institutions for the mentally ill was considered socially advanced.
The closure of mental institutions in the 1980s was a devil’s bargain between liberals, who objected to involuntary commitment as a violation of human rights, and conservatives, who wanted to save money. They agreed on the closures for different reasons.
The concept was that the mentally ill would be housed in humane, small, home-like residences located in communities. For many reasons, that never happened.
There is a proposal to build a small facility for short-stay mental illness in my town.
Mental health facility to be added to Healing Campus
$13 million for Sequim clinic
By Paul Gottlieb Special to the Peninsula Daily News
Saturday, April 29, 2023
A $13 million appropriation for a 16-bed mental health crisis clinic in Sequim tops the Clallam County projects in an $8.7 billion 2023-25 capital construction budget that Gov. Jay Inslee will likely sign by mid-May. …
The Jamestown S’Kllallam Tribe’s psychiatric evaluation and treatment facility would be built in Sequim near their medication assisted treatment clinic on the 20-acre Healing Campus. … [end quote]
The “medication assisted treatment clinic” is a euphemism for opioid addiction treatment. The 16-bed psychiatric evaluation and treatment center is not meant to be a long-stay facility. The Jamestown Healing Clinic’s 16-bed psychiatric evaluation and treatment center is expected to operate as a crisis stabilization center or short-term residential stabilization facility, according to Step Up Together. These types of facilities typically offer stays ranging from a few days up to a week or more.
So it isn’t really a substitute for a mental institution for a patient who needs custodial care.
Wendy
So many reasons. Deinstitutionalization without a solid plan to provide funding, coordination, and access to care is what got us to today. Many countries with socialized health care do far better than the US in managing mental illness.
That said, how is your town reacting to a new short-term mental health facility? Will stigma create a hurdle?
That is what the people of Michigan were sold. But the counties didn’t have the money, and the state didn’t fund them, so, they wander the streets, until the police pick them up.
Steve
The town put up a tremendous resistance to the MAT (opioid medication) clinic but lost to the powers that be who supported it, including the local Native American Tribe (with their brilliant businessman chairman). Due to the town’s resistance the MAT clinic was forced to hire a social worker to prevent problems. In the few years since the clinic opened there really haven’t been any problems. So the town isn’t resisting the mental health facility in the same way.
Wendy
Liberals is a strong other word for lawyers. Reagan made new law regarding rights.
The courts had seen some of the mentally ill as unable to take care of themselves. It was that simple. You lost your rights if you were incompetent.
Newer medications began to change the relationship of the mentally ill to society. Some mentally ill people began to benefit from the pharma. Others were too profoundly ill or unable to see their problems to benefit. Those who were unable to benefit were denied their basic needs. Those who became competent live much better lives among us.
Thanks for the response. That’s good to hear! Often, NIMBYism’s fears are unfounded. The stigma around mental illness is a powerful barrier for individuals seeking treatment and communities funding resources.