There is an abandoned psychiatric facility fairly close to where I live, that was allowed to deteriorate and can not be restored, and my state government is determined to close more psychiatric hospitals. The number of people with severe mental illness is NOT declining and they are not all best cared for outside of a hospital.
I also know someone who recently had a psychotic reaction to a medication and was kept for nearly a week in over-crowded and non-therapeutic conditions, two nights in the ER before a psych bed could be found - get them semi-stable and get them out is the philosophy. There is no long term care.
I knew someone who with her husband was killed by their schizophrenic son, who they could not force into treatment.
It’s not just the physical facilities; it’s the laws that make the difference. But the insane never went away because of the new drugs and new laws and deinstitutionalization.
The insane are still with us - they are in their parents’ homes or on the streets or in jail - and sometimes they run amok and kill.
Changing the laws, not the gun laws, but the laws dealing with the mentally ill, would be a better monument to the children and teachers killed at Newtown.
go berserk, too
Mental health policy in the US is a complete tragedy
How would Newtown ever heal if it were the location of that horrific tragedy and the place where the mentally ill were housed?