by Aunt Jemimas Daughter
Friday, Feb. 26, 2016 at 7:30 AM
Author of the Tragic Odyssey of the Homeless Mentally Ill a Text by Harper and Row.
Until the laye 1950's most seriously mentally ill lived in state hospitals It became feasible to discharge 100,000's of thousands when medications improved. by 1985 the population had decreased by 80%
1 topic in closure of hospitals is federally funded community mental health centers. They were originally conceived as a bright alternative to state hospitals. There were a reported 789 of these in the continental US but many devolved into care for the lesser serious. Counseling can evolve into a sinkhole for costs not related to most serious cases.
The state governments have shfted the costs from state taxpayers to the federal taxpayers. In 1955 the federal gov paid for 2%% of the care of the mentally ill. In 1985 it paid for 38%%
This has blossomed through the extension of Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income. States unfortunately have a incentive to gut the # of beds of their own state mental hospitals and to put patients on the metal health wards of general hospitals. Mosy hospitals have only 10 or 20 beds on the mental health side and are boisterous.