Q-and-A: Deinstitutionalism

 1.  When did the US invent the end to mental institutions?

You can go back to the late 1950s in the UK and cite the fact that .4-percent of the British population was housed in some type of mental institute.  A wave of changes were set into place by 1960s, and the 'wave' continued over into the US.

2  How did deinstitutionalism get packaged?

You can say two key things were put into play:

(1) Some efforts were put into play to 'lecture' a patient to change and adjust to the 'outside' world.  

(2) Lesser prescribed 'stays' were laid down as part of the recovery process (with medication), and releasing patients who seemed 'safe' and believed not to threaten themselves or others. 

3.  Drug and medication a key role to the non-existence of mental institutions today?

This is argued about to a great extent.  If you were unable to control your behavior, and the medication brought you to reality....fine.  But this idea is utterly dependent upon a person carrying out the medication routine, and not getting secondary drugs (unrelated) to add to the mental burden they are carrying.

4.  How many Americans are considered to have a mental disorder (just in general)?

If you read through all the reference material....from the adult population in the US....it's around one in four.  These are people who need a therapist or mild drugs to tide them over with the problem.  I should state....these are the people who have fear of flying, fear of driving on bridges, or freak-out on ghost-talk.

If you were referencing 'serious' disorders (a threat), it's believed to be around five out of a hundred.  Meaning?  Well....your friend might be OK for 364 days a year, and one single  day decide to shoot holes in the trailer, burn the garage down, or go nuts at Wal-Mart.  

5.   Is the current era of misinformation and political bickering adding to the mental institution chatter?

It's hard to avoid this.  It's like bringing up Trump-delusional-syndrome (TDS).  There's no doubt that the syndrome now exists....it's just the numbers that you worry about.  Personally, I'd take a humble view of 250,000 Americans with this TDS problem and you might have a equal number with anti-TDS (meaning people who see Trump as 'Jesus').  

6.  Could we bring some mild form of institutions back, in this modern era?

Legally.....it'd be challenged.

Then you'd have to figure the cost of this, and the burden given to each state to run a safe institution.  

7.  Aren't the dangerous mentally-challenged folks either living on the streets or in prisons/jails already?

This is argued a good bit, and jail-keepers will readily admit that a large segment of the prison population end up there because there are no institutions to house people. 

Around urban centers, one might make the case that they've attracted more challenged people because of the free flow of drugs....where one self-medicates to control themselves.

8.  Are we reaching a society position where 'crazy-crazy-dangerous' is acceptable?

There is some type of behavior being shown that we should allow people a chance to 'be themselves'.....even if they self-medicate to a path that makes them dangerous. 

There's also a public frustration building up that suggests some type of institutions probably will come back in the next decade.