Posted by Noa on January 6, 2003, at 11:51:00
In reply to Re: Movies that feature Therapy/mental illness, posted by syringachalet on January 6, 2003, at 1:35:12
>>>Thanks to Ronald Regan we then had so many people leaving the hospitals and living initially in group homes and having active treatment in community mental health centers( a good thing)..to eventaully living on the streets...and thats where we are today...
If I am remembering correctly, I think the community mental health initiative is really thanks to Roselyn Carter (and earlier I think the initiative originally might have started with the Kennedy family). In the Carter era, she was active in developing plans to have more community based mental health treatment, housing, therapy, medicaiton management, etc., so that people could live functionally in the community and not have to remain in state hospitals. I believe she headed a commision to this effect.I think it is with the Reagan era that, while people were released from hospitals into the community, because the hospitals were being drastically cut and closed, the community facilities were never developed as planned, because they were never funded (beginnin with the Reagan era). In Reagan's admin, there were also starting to be drastic cuts in state funding of community based services because he switched state funding to "block grants" rather than targeted grants, which made it easier to reduce the amount of the grants to states without being blamed for cutting any particular program.
So imho, Reagan's legacy is really the 2nd part of your statement:
"...to eventaully living on the streets...and thats where we are today..."
poster:Noa
thread:34562
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20030104/msgs/34700.html