General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRonald Reagan decimated the mental health system in this country..
There are no beds to treat persons, there are few hospitals offering the services.. State hospitals are basically extinct...
Do I think persons who have been diagnosed with a mental illness all belong in a hospital, no? Do I think they are responsible for all gun violence, no?
I do however think there is a link between many of the mass shootings that take place and mental illness and aggrieved males (their grievances causing exacerbation of their illness) who if they did not have access to guns, these killings would not take place.
If there were no guns, we wouldn't even have to think about this, and that would be my preference. But alas, that will not ever be the case.
I'm for people being able to access treatment. I am also for families being able to get help for their loved ones.
Ronald Reagan really screwed the pooch in this area. I know there were problems with the system, but the problems weren't fixed, the system was just decimated.
MineralMan
(146,333 posts)The state hospital system in CA was horrible, of course, and people were trying very hard to reform it. Lots of people went basically untreated, with sedatives used to drug them into being completely passive. Reagan's solution was to shut it down and switch to "community care" provided by counties. Trouble was, no funding was available, so many counties simply gave lip service to providing mental health care.
That carried through to other states. Now, our main mental health care system for people in crisis is made up of our jails and prisons. There's still no money, and now, there are few, if any facilities to provide care. The whole system is useless for people who need, but cannot afford care, so they end up on the streets or in jails. It sucks!
Ronald Reagan was a horrible Governor and a worse President.
boston bean
(36,223 posts)And he used the concerns regarding the system to shut them down, without any alternative that was remotely possible.
All, to cut the budget.... It was one of the worst things he ever did as president, that I can think of.
Nye Bevan
(25,406 posts)http://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)And don't say but the congress? Heck the congress was 40-years straight democratic until 1995. Blame to go around. Open the mental hospitals to more beds really shouldn't have been difficult.
handmade34
(22,758 posts)Perhaps what is most interesting about the change in policies of involuntary commitment is the coalition that helped bring it about: a combination of "law and order" conservatives, economic conservatives, and liberal groups that sought reform in the provision of mental health services. But the policy shift had hardly anything at all to do with the mentally ill or the practitioners who treated them. It was designed to lower taxes and shift responsibility away from the federal government. Ironically then , the need for reform perceived by those involved and concerned with the mentally ill (practitioners and families) was co-opted by the interests of capital.
Brainstormy
(2,381 posts)The vast number of shootings are NOT committed by the mentally ill. The mentally ill are much more likely to be victims of gun violence than perpetrators of it. That being said, you're exactly right about Reagan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-oliver-mental-health_56124040e4b076812702757e
Faux pas
(14,691 posts)when raygun f-ed the state up. When he closed the mental hospitals, the number of homeless people really multiplied then. St Ronnie my wild liberal ass!
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)and the director of one of the homeless agencies said--I think correctly--that the Twin Towers (LA County Jail) is the largest mental health facility in the world. We have gone from treating mental illness to criminalizing it and treating homelessness as a symptom of its criminality.
Vinca
(50,310 posts)We both worked at a psychiatric hospital for a time and remember the wholesale ousting of people who needed hospitalization. They're still around, of course, only they're living under bridges and in jails. We can't hold them responsible for their violent acts because voices might be telling them to do it or some other severe issue. Background checks won't stop them from buying guns unless they've been arrested or deemed mentally ill by a court of law. That said, the gun issue is not necessarily a mental health problem. That's what the NRA has decided the talking point should be in these cases. Sane people murder each other every day of the week.