[AuntB]

“More proof the mental hospitals closed in the 1970s need to be reopened. When closed mass murders took off like a rocket.”

Actually, Reagan deserves that blame....
“But in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan deinstitutionalized the mentally ill and emptied the psychiatric hospitals into so-called “community” clinics, the problem got worse.”

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2023-04-24/opinion-impact-of-deinstitutionalization-on-homelessness-reagan-mental-health-hospitals-san-diego/

[rlmorel]

Just for context, this is what happened in 1981 under Reagan (as described largely by Wikipedia, not a right-wing source by any means-I removed what I saw as partisan coloring by Wikipedia which is well documented. You can see their whole text there):

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The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, passed by a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and a Republican-controlled Senate, and signed by President Ronald Reagan on August 13, 1981, combined funding for social service programs, including mental health services, into a single grant given to states.

Supporters believed this approach gave states flexibility and independence.

Critics feared it would result in reduced funding for mental health services and go against the community mental health movements objectives.

Reagan advocated for smaller government, reduced federal spending, and greater emphasis on states' rights and local control. With a focus on government decreased spending and promoting states rights and local governance there was a reevaluation of federal involvement and financing in areas, like mental health.

It included provisions that repealed most of the MHSA passed by Democrats under Jimmy Carter, discontinuing federal funding and the support for community mental health centers established under the MHSA (Democrats).

Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 redirected mental health funding mechanisms and transferred more responsibility for mental health services to the states, reducing significantly federal funding for mental health programs.

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Bottom line-the FEDERAL involvement via money and SPECIFIC payments for SPECIFIC areas of interest and "need" as outlined by the legislation (passed in 1980 under Carter right before the election) was removed by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, and states were given a GRANT of a sum of money to be used in these areas in states as the states saw fit. The States squandered the money, and the STATES shut down facilities and used the money for things they deemed more important.

It is also important to note that almost ALL the fights against infringements on the rights of mentally ill people to be institutionalized came from the LEFT.

To say "Reagan did it" is misleading. He thought, and I agree with him, it is a State responsibility. And the STATES took the money and abdicated their responsibility by using it elsewhere, IMO. The responsibility should NEVER have been at the Federal level.

There is nothing in the Constitution that says the Federal government is responsible for mental health.