this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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People who are actively seeking in-patient mental health treatment find they cannot receive it.
Unless somebody is in the criminal justice system and held in a hospital until they are deemed fit to aid in their defense or the clock runs out, assuming there was even space, “committed” most often means the cops taking someone to a hospital for a hold and the hospital releasing them an hour later because they have no space.
Your comment is as useless as saying people should just fly over traffic jams. It contributes nothing to solving any issues.
That's the rub, isn't it? We used to have mental institutions and then we got rid of them because it didn't look good but what happened to the crazy people? They didn't just become not crazy. We need some way to manage people who are mentally ill instead of just abandoning them on the street. Putting them in shelters with other people or in homes which they may well destroy is not an answer.
Deinstitutionalisation was also about saving money, that’s the same reason the institutions won’t come back. Community based care was supposed to be available but was never properly funded, and even when people can receive care they may not be able to afford the medications. Most people are not just “crazy”, but there are few supports to be successful.
It’s always a little telling that the people who are loudest against funding homeless and mental health services never complain about the high costs of prisons and policing in relation to those same issues.