"prayer" or "social support" or whatever isn't a substitute for IV anti-psychotics
Yes there was abuse, and yes that should have been curbed.
Some people, yes, but an incredibly small minority. The vast majority of people with severe and enduring mental illness can be managed perfectly well in the community if you have adequate community-based mental healthcare provision. The choice between asylums and people fending for themselves on the streets is a false dichotomy.
>"prayer" or "social support" or whatever isn't a substitute for IV anti-psychotics
We have a wide range of long-acting injectable antipsychotics that can be administered on a fortnightly or monthly basis. You do not need to lock someone up indefinitely in order to administer an injection once every few weeks. Some people will inevitably need to be compelled into treatment, but that number is much smaller if a) you have a mental healthcare workforce who have the time and training to establish rapport and build trust with patients and b) you use early intervention to reach people before they are in crisis.
And you know how the story of "I don't need/don't like the meds/they're out to get me" story goes within the community of people who definitely needs that kind of treatment
Unless I’m way out of the loop, there are still facilities for extreme cases, no? I think the difference is that patients cannot be detained there against their will, vs asylums were full of people who wanted to leave, after being forced there by someone else, and being treated like shit every step of the way
This is part of the problem. People think that homeless people are all drug users, and that’s not accidental. I bet if you ended up on the street, couldn’t get a leg up to get off the street, you might eventually turn to drugs to help forget that you’ve been abandoned by society and a government that will bail out car companies and banks but won’t establish better systems to get people up and running again.