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It's a bit more complicated....

Posted by Rod M (W) on November 29, 2022 at 11:43:03

In Reply to: Raygun opened the gates of the asylums posted by LtMandella on November 29, 2022 at 10:35:49:

An article in the NY Times is quite interesting for the history of closing down institutions as the medical professionals believed that drugs could fix the mentally ill. The idea was to put these folks into community clinics and so forth. Sadly, they found out later that they were wrong. Musch of this history goes back to the 50s and 60s.

Jack R. Ewalt, who directed the staff of the Joint Commission when it was founded in 1955, says now that he remains ''a great believer in the use of drugs, but they are just another treatment, not a magic.''

''Drugs can help people get back to the community,'' he said, ''but they have to have medical care, a place to live and someone to relate to. They can't just float around aimlessly.''

Dr. Ewalt said the 1963 act was supposed to have the states continue to take care of the mentally ill but that many states simply gave up and ceded most of their responsibility to the Federal Government.

''The result was like proposing a plan to build a new airplane and ending up only with a wing and a tail,'' Dr. Ewalt said. ''Congress and the state governments didn't buy the whole program of centers, plus adequate staffing, plus long-term financial supports.''

Bi-partisan efforts did fail because grants to the states were expensive and states couldn't afford the care and chose to cut services. But the Supreme Court and the ACLU also had a hand in the problem.

ACLU History: Mental Institutions

The ACLU's most important Supreme Court case involving the rights of people with mental illness was filed on behalf of Kenneth Donaldson, who had been involuntarily confined in a Florida State Hospital for 15 years. He was not dangerous and had received no medical treatment. In a landmark decision for mental health law in 1975, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled that states cannot confine a non-dangerous individual who can survive on his own, or with help from family and friends.

-Rod

• HOW RELEASE OF MENTAL PATIENTS BEGAN   (Open in New Window)

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