this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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[–] [email protected] 74 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

The issue with institutionalization (besides SCOTUS ruling it violates the ADA in 1999’s Olmstead v LC, rendering it illegal for anyone with a disability), is that it’s expensive. That’s why Reagan defunded them all.

To be clear, deinstutionalization was a good idea, but unlike JFK’s push, Reagan pushed for it without replacing institutions with well-funded community services. Which would be cheaper than institutions, most of which sit unoccupied and decaying, so there’s also the question of where Trump wants to put these people.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This doesn't get said enough. Getting rid of them was a legitimately good idea, the some of the abuses in those places was hair-raising. We just didn't replace them with anything, so the mentally ill all just turned into homeless mentally ill, which just made more people miserable, which in turn probably contributes to more individual incidents of mental illness occuring.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Many also ended up in jails and prisons

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

And many more simply died. As it turns out, releasing the disabled onto the street, surprisingly, wasn’t a perfect option.

[–] girlfreddy 5 points 1 year ago

Canada did the same damn thing at the same damn time with the same damn repercussions because our PM followed Reagan around like a damn lapdog. 🤬

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Getting rid of them was a SHIT idea what are u talking about?!?!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Exactly what I said. Needed to be done, just needed an improved plan instead. Choices were No Plan, A Bad Plan, and A Good Plan. Mental institutions were a bad plan. We got rid of them and went with no plan. We need a third possibility nobody tried--a good plan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

It comes down to the same issue with the police. When you look at the effort it would take to reform what was wrong, it would be nearly impossible. A better idea would be to toss out everything and start from scratch.

Just take a look at how mental institutions were in the last moments before they were closed: https://timeline.com/willowbrook-the-institution-that-shocked-a-nation-into-changing-its-laws-c847acb44e0d?gi=187e20cd91e2

https://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/2016/01/the-story-that-revealed-willowbrooks-horrors/

https://www.geraldo.com/willowbrook-ii/

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Im in the disability field and honestly I feel like we need something and need it bad. Not institutions, at least not like they were, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see some people in the disability community respond positively to this with the hopes that its different this time, lord know the people who like him don't believe his words at face value. I can also tell you thers definitely is a not insignificant amount of people in the community who have a neutral to faborable feeling on Trump.

The key here I think is that during the pandemic, even before mask mandates, we started seeing services get cut, orgs defunded, and staff reduced. So much of the disability community right now is relying on support staff and self directed program funding, which is essentially the disbursement of medicare and medicaid funding to one individual, not necessary with a medical background, to help the person with the disability with their day to day stuff and goals stated in their Individual Service Plan. The flexibility is great but its just one person at a time, they don't even get a budget to do things typically.

A lot of people with disabilities are missing the structure of actual organizations that has the resources to do more than what a one on one support worker can, and someone on Trumps team is either smart enough to know that, or quite lucky.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice, I also used to work in the disability field (ID/A). And you’re right, although at least in my state we haven’t had cuts, more so just a lack of sufficient new funding.

I will say that I don’t think many in the disability will support this, but some do seem ignorant of the past and the old realities of institutionalization.

And yeah, self-directing is a double edged sword. I’ve seen it done well and I’ve seen it abused by families just to get some extra money, while not really sufficiently meeting the needs of their family member with disabilities. I also think it’s nearly inescapable in the future, given the staffing shortages we already see in direct care and the aging boomer population that will require even more staffing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Self directed seems to be the answer to budget problems, but there should be pooled resources that all support staff can tap into if we want to even keep the same level of service we had pre pandemic, and honestly the disability community still deserves more than that bar. Hopefully we get there.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

question of where Trump wants to put these people.

Decriminalize/legalize all drugs, transfer all for-profit prisons back to the government and/or not for profit charities, shuffle prisoners around to free up prisons to be converted to mental healthcare and drug rehabilitation facilities, and fund it with a taxed and regulated drug market.

Not that he thinks far enough to come up with that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I suddenly can't see the comment chain where we were having a conversation. Did you delete your comments as after I posted the law that you said didn't exist?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Weird. I can't access that comment chain anymore, but I can see the comments in our history. Maybe it's a Sync issue (the platform I'm using)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Doesn't seem to be available for Android