Why did we close all the mental hospitals?
Why did we close all the mental hospitals?”
Because we transferred all the inmates to Washington, D.C.
They made it harder for the Democrat voters to get to the polls.
People lobbied to close mental hospitals saying that too many were incarcerated there and that they received little treatment while there and that they would have better quality of life ‘in the real world’ and that mental hospital abuses were too numerous. So basically it was for ‘humanitarian reasons.’ A friend of mine is a clinical psychologist. She said that it’s almost impossible to get the hospitals to hold a seriously ill patient for more than 12 hours and those rare individuals who somehow get into ‘the system’ usually receive no treatment other than tranquilizers in addition to their regular mood/stabilizer drugs while there. Then those lucky ones are released too soon.
Liberals watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and 'felt' all the crazy people were saner than the rest of us.
Liberals also felt they would save money and have more jobs for liberal social worker types. Those with mental problems became the 'homeless' and easy money for beatdown videos... and best - the 'homeless industry' started pulling in big bucks.
In short, it's been a horror - but liberals feel good about themselves - so in their minds it's a wash.
Dictionary size books have been written in response to your question. To summarize and condense in a severe manner - the reasons for the closures were threefold; thorazine, civil rights and ill advised closing of said state mental hospitals.
Up until the end of WWII, America’s answer to moderate - significant mental illness was institutionalization. The advent of drugs such as thorazine promised to “cure” the mentally ill and allow them to lead relatively normal lives (this was predicated on the patients taking their meds of course). Conservatives offered misguided support for the closing of budget busting mental hospitals which were then seen as antiquated against these wonder drugs. It was also reasoned that the hospitals would hurt more than help. With the drugs, the crazies could live normal lives - keeping them in insitutions wasted tax payer dollars and prevented perfectly able bodied citizens from working and paying taxes. Cheap group homes or in patient service centers were thus constructed to ensure that the mentally ill were able get their medications. All was for naught however as liberals discovered, and subsequently won in court, that the mentally ill have “special” rights. You a parent of an adult nutcase living in the street? Sorry - you can’t commit them. Its a “lifestyle” choice. Nutjob not interested in taking their meds? Sorry - they have a right to refuse treatment even if its supposed to prevent them from murdering children on their way to school.