08-06-2015, 02:34 PM
RgrF wrote:
Police have inadvertently been custodians of our homeless mental populace since the time most mental hospitals were closed, as I recall that was the enthusiastic proposal put forth during the 80's and enacted by the Reagan administration.
Today most urban jails are primarily custodians of the mentally ill.
The American Psychiatric Association oversold in-the-community treatment to all the politicians of the day. Pundits and demagogues will blame the political leaders of the day but the American Psychiatric Association sold the concepts to the Reagans and the Gerry Browns of that era. Big Pharm held great promises for meds to treat the mentally ill based on parallel inroads with vaccines and antibiotics and in all reality hasn't worked. Facilities and support infrastructure was ignored due to faith in modern meds. We needed and still need both.
and it was more like the sixties not the eighties
from Day One no/and/or insufficient resources were provided to support the Act. The whole concept was oversold and suffocated under it's own unfunded promises.
Same today with undocumented criminals being released back into the community rather than being felt with and for reasons of not having this thread vaporized let's just call it due to "red tape". The blame falls on all politicians and lobbyists of all colors. Literal and politically figurative .