Mental Health Deinstitutionalization

Those people should not get arrested, they should be in a mental hospital. It used to be like that in the old days but then some legalisation stopped the practice of putting mental people into mental asylums so now they roam the streets. Maybe it was because those asylums were horrible but it doesn't have to be like that, we can just improve those places. There are enough shelters for homeless people but you can't force them, we need to force them into something, but not into a prison.

The problem with deinstitutionalization and modern therapy is the assumption everyone can be treated. While that's more true than ever, a significant proportion of the mentally ill do not respond to medicine or therapy.We need to bring institutions back for those we cannot cure. Jail has become the treatment center of last resort for those too dangerous to themselves or others, because we closed all the secure psychiatric centers. There's not enough room in jail either, and judges a

I'm guessing both. I think a lot of people get the ick about forcibly incarcerating people who are addicts or suffering from severe mental health issues[1]. I know I did when I was younger. We've moved to a more voluntary model of "mental health outreach" and the like. But this requires folks with compromised thought processes to regularly make a rational decision to seek help.[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deinstitutionalisation" rel="nofol

Usually, mentally ill people are outpatients of medical facilities. However, if they're not a danger to themselves or society, it's difficult to make a case that they should be imprisoned against their will (which is what it would amount to if one institutionalised a person indefinitely).I'm not saying I know what the answer should be, and this sits on legally and ethically tricky ground all over the world. The mentally ill have been treated pretty badly through history, and I&

Forcing someone into a mental institution means they are housed. Many (numbers wise, I have no idea what %) of the homeless in the US refuse all government help. In the US if you refuse help and have not committed a serious crime the government cannot force you to get help.I have known a few paranoid schizophrenic people in my life. They needed help, but refused all attempts to get it to them. One eventually did get help - but only because he committed a felony and his condition was obviou

I think the point he's trying to get across is this:First we had institutions for the mentally ill. Then we closed them all down, with the promise that they'd be replaced by community mental health care.But since that care never showed up, all those people just starting going to jail instead. This is no better than the institutions, but they were "out of sight, out of mind", so no one cared.What Holmes is saying is, since we're not going to put these people in j

It's easier than ever to be homeless and it's generally frowned upon to forcefully institutionalize the mentally ill these days.

One of the biggest problems is many homeless are too mentally ill to make good decisions for themselves like seeking treatment. That's probably obvious given their life situation, but the law doesn't allow anything to be done for people too sick to help themselves. We need compelled treatment and high-quality facilities which are not jails but where people are not free to leave until they have enough momentum in their treatment to improve their lives. This seems heavy-handed, and proba

I'm not going to pretend I know a solution to this, but wasn't part of the reason it became hard to involuntarily commit people because it was being abused? Like, fathers were getting their daughters committed for being "too promiscuous"?If that's a serious risk, I don't know that the "solution" to this problem by committing people is worth it.That said, it's a hard problem. I know it's extremely hard for people without a yuppie income to

We did a great disservice to the mentally ill when we closed (rather than reform) our mental institutions. The mentally ill would greatly benefit from compassionate custodial care. For those who merely make bad personal choices then enforcement of no urban camping laws by disposing of unoccupied campsites along with the availability of low cost simple barracks type shelters for overnight use should ease the situation without resorting to arrests or fines. Society can be firm and compassionate at