Mental-Health Rights Movement
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In condemning liberals for removing the mentally ill from hospitals, Isaac ignores the role of conservatives in this tragedy. The court rulings that started de-institutionalizing the mentally ill decreed that these persons were not criminals and therefore could not be imprisoned in hospitals. Either the mentally ill had to be treated for their illnesses, or they had to be freed from confinement.
It was the conservatives who decided that proper in-hospital treatment would be too expensive; they would not approve taxes for helping those whom they perhaps believed were really suffering from moral deficiencies rather than from illnesses that were not the patients’ fault. Thus, the conservative conspired with the liberals (although not consciously) to close the mental hospitals.
At least the liberals endorsed a concept of clinics and community-based treatment for the mentally ill to replace the hospitals. The conservatives, however, effectively denied adequate funding for these alternatives.
DAVID E. ROSS
Agoura
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