Alright, tell me let me if I have this straight: the process of deinstitutionalization can be attributed to a) new advancements in pharmacology, b) fiscal pressures on states, c) human rights concerns, and d) the government\u2019s willingness to provide SSI and Medicaid checks to people. Homelessness was then, in turn, a function of deinstitutionalization because federal aid was not strong enough to ensure the stability of people who were straight out of \u201cinstitutions.\u201d
\nIf I have all of that right, I find pointing to what should have happened difficult because there are so many factors at play here. Given the role of deinstitutionalization in the homeless crisis, one could argue that people should still be in institutions and that governing the treatment of mentally-ill people is invalid if it denotes leaving \u201ccrazy people\u201d on the street. One could also argue that the federal government should\u2019ve been held more responsible for providing a safety net for the newly-deinstitutionalized, or that, alternatively, mental hospitals should\u2019ve never been subsidized by states in the first place, in that perhaps the federal government would\u2019ve been better equipped to deal with them. I find the latter argument interesting because (I think) it would entail more of a socialized healthcare system and less emotional and financial burdens upon families with mentally-ill people within them. However, because I imagine that a system of mental hospitals subsidized by the federal government would last longer than such a system subsidized by individual states due to greater levels of financial stability, deinstitutionalization in this country might\u2019ve occurred later, or not at all. My problem with arguing for federally-subsidized mental hospitals lies in that fact that I still don\u2019t know what I think about the morality of putting people in mental hospitals. Am I arguing for keeping people in mental hospitals for a few decades longer if I\u2019m arguing for federally-subsidized mental hospitals?
\nI guess I have three questions for y\u2019all. Would you argue for the replacement of state mental hospitals with federally-subsidized ones way back when they were a thing? If so, do you think that means arguing for prolonging the process of deinstitutionalization, and would that be \u201cmoral?\u201d Also, do you think this all maybe doesn\u2019t matter because human-rights activists would\u2019ve still pushed for deinstitutionalization anyway?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alright, tell me let me if I have this straight: the process of deinstitutionalization can be attributed to a) new advancements in pharmacology, b) fiscal pressures on states, c) human rights concerns, and d) the government\u2019s willingness to provide SSI and Medicaid checks to people. Homelessness was then, in turn, a function of deinstitutionalization because … Continue reading Thoughts on Deinstitutionalization<\/span>