Many of the Libs are saying the mental health situation today is Reagan’s fault, because he started “shutting down the asylums” in the 70s. It was actually JFK who proposed a shift from “asylum” to community care. The availability of SSI in 1972 and increased use of psychotropic meds led to this trend.
wasn’t there a Geraldo expose that got laws changed?
They're FOS, the ACLU sued and the State could no longer incarcerate them
They were released and subsequently became home less.....which was then blame on Reagan and his econmic polices and love for the rich.
The way I remember it was that during the '80s the "advocates for the institutionalized" found a couple of people who had been institutionalized for decades but were perfectly normal. They then made (and got away with) the assertion that "Since that person was wrongly institutionalized, nobody should be institutionalized".
And that's when the "homelessness" problem really picked-up, too.