Back in the early seventies we still had plenty of homeless people bunking out over subway grates and sleeping in doorways. But, not nearly as many as we have today – all over the US.
Thousands and thousands of the homeless are mentally ill or suffering from an addiction.
As a first year psychiatric resident in Philadelphia, at PGH, Philadelphia General Hospital, the mentally ill were brought in for evaluation by the police. To place someone on a psychiatric hold, the law was clearcut, two psychiatrists needed to sign the admission papers. Once that was done, the patient was admitted to the inpatient unit and treated, most commonly for psychotic thinking secondary to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, paranoid disorder, addiction etc.
Then what happened?
After treatment, they were discharged to return to their families, homes, or given appointments to attend sessions at a community health center. Their psychotic thinking was under control.
Yes. You read that correctly. THEY WERE DISCHARGED.
Then we closed the state hospitals, lost funding for Community Mental Health Centers and ignored the problem.
Well, you see where that got us.
Liberals who think that placing someone who is overtly psychotic in a treatment center is unfair and wrong don’t sufficiently understand the problem. When a psychotic person is adequately treated, they are often no longer psychotic! They can return to being a productive member of our society.
If Prop 1 doesn’t pass, and it’s very, very close to whether it will or not, we’re back to watching our mentally ill sleep under freeways, yell obscenities, and even attack innocent people. Delusional thinking can’t be reasoned with. More about that in another post.
Thanks, Art
#Prop1, #Delusionalthinking, #homelessness, #mentallyill
Inside The Mind of a Psychiatrist 