We already have involuntary commitment laws.
No decent society would let them mentally ill take care of themselves. Some people are just not capable of living an independent existence.
We just pretend in the face of all the evidence, that’s possible. Dream on.
I totally agree - unfortunately, society as a whole seems to be becoming less and less decent.
The involuntary committal laws are a maze to navigate, as well. In some states, they are a joke, or at least I’ve been told so by friends who have had to deal with them. Should you manage to get someone committed, well, psych units are pretty damned bad places at the best of times. The whole tendency of the profession to throw pills at the problem until the symptoms go away adds another layer of difficulty.
Got no answers here. I’d ideally like to see an intense, focussed, world wide research campaign on mental illness, but that won’t happen for various reasons.